fungere

Fungere is a Latin verb meaning to perform, to carry out, or to discharge a function or duty; it can also mean to function or operate. In Classical Latin it is most often encountered in the deponent form fungor, meaning “to perform” or “to hold and fulfill an office.” The non-deponent active form fungere appears chiefly in late Latin or in technical/legal contexts, where it retains the sense of performing or executing.

In standard Latin grammar, fungor is part of the deponent family, with principal parts commonly given as fungor, fungi, functus sum. The root fung- serves as the basis for related nouns such as functio, meaning function or performance. The verb thus provides a linguistic link to the English noun function and its adjectives, via the Latin development of a term describing an act of performing or operating.

Usage and development: fungere and fungor express the act of performing a duty, fulfilling a role, or causing something to function. In historical or philological discussion, the verb is often examined to illustrate how Latin encodes obligation and service, as well as how the concept of function emerged in the language. In the Romance languages, related words survive in various forms that convey function or role, though the exact verb forms differ across languages. The English word function ultimately derives from Latin functio, a noun formed from the same root, rather than from an everyday direct inheritance of fungere. A common caution for learners is to distinguish fungere from similarly spelled but unrelated terms such as fungus, which belong to different roots.