The term "Fundamentalist" was AFAIK first used, a little over a century ago, of Christians who rejected the trends toward theological liberals' rejections of "fundamental" teachings of Christianity such as the Deity of Jesus, that sin, heaven, and hell are real, that faith in Jesus is necessary for salvation from sin and hell, that Jesus will return bringing judgment. "Fundamentalist" was what they called themselves. Contrary to the stereotypes believed among Libs and Progs, many/most early Fundamentalists highly educated, some of them professors at Princeton University. Education is still respected among real Fundamentalists ("real" as opposed to those Libs and Progs in ignorance wrongly call Fundamentalists), and many have attended and graduated from college (and not just institutions like Bob Jones University).
I am not a Fundamentalist, and it would take me 20 or 30 seconds for me to convince a real Fundamentalist of that. But I do respect them for many things and consider them my brothers and sisters in Christ.