Meaning

noun any factor that could be considered important to the understanding of a particular business

noun the lowest tone of a harmonic series

adjective serving as an essential component

originFrom Late Latin fundamentālis, from Latin fundamentum (“foundation”), from fundō (“to lay the foundation (of something), to found”), from fundus (“bottom”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0