Fun

When you think of fun, what comes to mind? What do you like to do for fun?
 
Where does a word like fun come from, anyway? Who makes up such a word?
 
-o-
 
I realize that talking about fun during current Covid19 restrictions and cancellations may not be a fun topic, given that these restrictions are on what many might consider fun things to do. I do not mean to minimize or trivialize the discomfort, fear, and uncertainty we feel at this time by turning my attention to fun.  
 
Perhaps an exploration of the word fun can say something to us at this time. Bear with me as I think out loud about this.
 
-o-
 
The origins of the word fun are unknown. However, from what is known, a somewhat disturbing and yet pleasantly surprising story can be told. Trickery, silliness, stupidity, and insanity are involved.
 
The word fun first appears to English in the 1680s as a verb: to fun. At that time fun meant to cheat or to play a hoax on someone: “Let’s go out and fun old Thomas at cards tonight!”
 
A few years later, around 1700, fun meant a cheat or a trick. By 1727, fun meant a diversion, an amusement, or a mirthful sport. ‘To make fun of’ someone is from 1737. Maybe to make fun of someone was to cheat them or trick them; maybe not. “Don’t get mad. We were just trying to have some fun!”
 
This seems to be about as much as we now know about the origins of the word fun. Perhaps people were having too much fun to stop and think about the word and where it comes from. 
 
Some suggest that the word fun may be a variation of medieval English fonnen (to befool, to make a fool of). Fonnen comes from the late 14th century word fonned (to be foolish, simple, deranged, insane; silly, unwise). In the early 14th century, the word fonne meant a fool or a stupid person.
 
Are we having fonne yet?!
 
How about this: Are you fond of anything? Or anyone? What do you have a fondness for? Fond, another late 14th century word, comes from fonned (foolish, deranged, silly… as just noted).
 
Have you ever watched your teenage daughter or son be ‘in love’ or be ‘fond’ of someone? The words deranged, insane, foolish, silly, unwise often come to mind! But don’t worry—the kids are just having fun!
 
By the 1570s, the word fond meant ‘foolishly tender’ or ‘to have strong affections for’ or ‘to dote upon’.
 
The verb doten (to dote), from around 1200, meant to behave irrationally, to do foolish things, to be or to become silly or deranged (like buying a bouquet of flowers for your lover, just because, for no reason). Doten also meant to be foolish or out of one’s mind or to be feeble-minded from age (that is, to be ‘in your dotage’).
 
By the late 15th century, the word dote had come to mean ‘to be infatuated’ or ‘to bestow excessive love’.
 
What does all this have to do with the word fun?
 
The word fun was hardly used, at least in public, in the 18th century. Given that the use of the word fun in the early part of that century meant to cheat, you weren’t likely to tell your friends you had ‘fun’ on the weekend any more than you’d tell your friends that you cheated at cards on the weekend. In addition, something ‘fun’ was considered trite, pious, or insincere, not to mention the earlier associations of the word fun with foolishness or silliness or craziness.
 
Nevertheless, as time passed the word fun gradually began to take on a more positive tone although you can still sense the darker side of the word fun in more recent expressions.
 
Funny (humorous) is from 1756.
 
Funny bone (the elbow end of the humerus where the ulnar nerve passes relatively unprotected) is from 1826. If you have ever banged your funny bone, you’ll know that this is not a funny experience!
 
A funnyman (a circus or stage clown) is from 1854.
 
Fun and games (mirthful carryings-on) is from 1906.
 
The distinction between ‘funny ha-ha’ (humorous) and ‘funny peculiar’ (strange, odd, causing perplexity) is from 1916.
 
Funny money (counterfeit money) is from 1938.
 
Funny farm (a mental hospital) is from 1962.
 
Again, what does all this have to do with the word fun?
 
Merriam-Webster tells us that fun now means that which provides amusement or pleasure, playful, boisterous action or speech; a mood for finding or making amusement, enjoyment; to indulge in banter or play.
 
What are we to make of this evolution in meaning? How did fun come to mean being happy or doing something carefree?
 
One suggestion is that more people now than in the past have the time and resources and opportunities to ‘have fun’. If you live in a time and place where you work hard from dawn until dusk and then die of disease or childbirth before you are 35, you may not find that ‘fun’ is at the top of your Hierarchy of Needs (thank you for this, Mr. Maslow).
 
Another suggestion is that we can put ourselves in situations where ‘fun’ is likely to happen. We can go to a party or a hockey game or downhill skiing or cycling or surfing or whatever. What’s fun for one person may not be fun for another person. Can sitting with a good book and glass of wine in a cozy nook with a good friend during a cold Covid evening be considered fun (or simply something pleasurable)?
 
However, even though we may put ourselves in such situations, we can not make fun happen. Try whomping up fun at a party and see how far you get; “Come on, we’re going to have fun now, no matter what!” Alcohol may be involved. Fun, perhaps by definition, is something out of the ordinary. Fun happens by surprise.
 
Perhaps when we are having fun, we are not in our minds. In fact, we may be out of our minds! We are in our bodies. The sensations generated by and in our body by some activity are what make us feel that this activity is fun or pleasurable.
 
So, what might it mean to ‘have fun’ during the current Covid19 pandemic?
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/