Ran into this one in a context where it clearly meant ‘bottom.’ I didn’t know it could mean that. Turns out it comes from Latin, fundus, meaning either a bottom or a piece of land.

fund:

NOUN, 1. A source of supply; a stock: a fund of goodwill. 2a. A sum of money or other resources set aside for a specific purpose: a pension fund. 2b. funds Available money; ready cash: short on funds. 3. funds The stock of the British permanent national debt, considered as public securities. Used with the. 4. An organization established to administer and manage a sum of money.

TRANSITIVE VERB: 1.To provide money for paying off the interest or principal of (a debt). 2. To convert into a long-term or floating debt with fixed interest payments.  3. To place in a fund for accumulation. 4. To furnish a fund for: funded the space program.

ETYMOLOGY: Latin fundus, bottom, piece of land.

There’s also batten down the hatches, but that’s one a lot of folks know. This is the one I had to look up. The hatches one refers to a slat of wood for holding a hatch cover, keeping a sail flat, construction work, etc.

bat·ten:

INTRANSITIVE VERB:  1. To become fat. 2. To thrive and prosper, especially at another’s expense:  “[She] battens like a leech on the lives of famous people, . . . a professional retailer of falsehoods”  (George F. Will).

TRANSITIVE VERB: To fatten; overfeed.

pic·a·resque:

ADJECTIVE: 1. Of or involving clever rogues or adventurers.  2. Of or relating to a genre of usually satiric prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic, often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his or her wits in a corrupt society.

NOUN: One that is picaresque.

ETYMOLOGY: French, from Spanish picaresco, from pícaro,

Online Etymological Dictionary

American Heritage Dictionary

Picaresque Novel at Wikipedia