founder

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
founder1

▶noun a person who founds an institution or settlement.

– derivatives
foundress noun.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
founder2

▶noun the owner or operator of a foundry.

– origin ME: prob. from OFr. fondeur, from fondre (see found3).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
founder3

▶verb

• 1 (of a ship) fill with water and sink.

  ■ (of a plan or undertaking) fail.

• 2 (of a horse) stumble or fall.

• 3 chiefly N. Amer. (of a horse, pony, etc.) succumb to laminitis.

▶noun chiefly N. Amer. laminitis in horses, ponies, etc.

– origin ME: from OFr. fondrer, esfondrer ‘submerge, collapse’, based on L. fundus ‘bottom, base’.

usage: The words founder and flounder are often confused. Founder means, in its general and extended use, ‘fail or come to nothing’, while flounder means ‘struggle; be in a state of confusion’.