Old English findan "come upon, meet with; discover; obtain by search or study" (class III strong verb; past tense fand, past participle funden), from Proto-Germanic *findan "to come upon, discover" (source also of Old Saxon findan, Old Frisian finda, Old Norse finna, Middle Dutch vinden, Old High German findan, German finden, Gothic finþan), originally "to come upon."
The Germanic word is from PIE root *pent- "to tread, go" (source also of Old High German fendeo "pedestrian;" Sanskrit panthah "path, way;" Avestan panta "way;" Greek pontos "open sea," patein "to tread, walk;" Latin pons (genitive pontis) "bridge;" Old Church Slavonic pǫti "path," pęta "heel;" Russian put' "path, way;" Armenian hun "ford," Old Prussian pintis "road"). The prehistoric sense development in Germanic would be from "to go" to "to find (out)," but Boutkan has serious doubts about this.
Germanic *-th- in English tends to become -d- after -n-. The change in the Germanic initial consonant is from Grimm's Law. To find out "to discover by scrutiny" is from 1550s (Middle English had a verb, outfinden, "to find out," c. 1300).
c. 1300, agent noun from find (v.).
ancient district of Anatolia on the southern coast of the Black Sea, from Latinized form of Greek Pontos "the Black Sea and the regions around it," literally "the sea," from a variant of the PIE root *pent- "to tread, go" that also produced Latin pons (genitive pontis) "bridge, passage;" see find (v.).
"of, found in, or pertaining to the Black Sea," 1550s, from Latin Ponticus, from Greek Pontikos, from Pontos "the Black Sea and the regions around it," literally "the sea," from a variant of the PIE root *pent- "to tread, go" that also produced Latin pons (genitive pontis) "bridge, passage;" see find (v.).
c. 1300, "act of discovering" (by chance or after searching; also an instance of this); verbal noun from find (v.). From c. 1400 as "what the mind discovers; knowledge attained by human effort" (as distinct from revelation or authority). Late 14c. as "act of sustaining, supporting, or providing the necessities of life; that which is provided by way of sustenance and support." Legal sense "proceedings leading to a verdict in an inquisition, etc.," is from mid-15c. Old English finding meant "invention." Related: Findings.
"discovered," late 14c., past-participle adjective from find (v.). Expression and found attached to the wages or charges in old advertisements for job openings, traveling berths, etc., indicates that meals are provided. It comes from the expression to find one's self "to provide for one's self." "When a laborer engages to provide himself with victuals, he is said to find himself, or to receive day wages" [Bartlett, "Dictionary of Americanisms," 1848]. Hence, so much and found for "wages + meals provided."
