# fount
## English
### Etymology 1

Clipping of fountain.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /faʊnt/
* Rhymes: -aʊnt
** Audio (Southern England):(file)

#### Noun

fount (plural founts)
* Something from which water flows.
** 1886, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge:At the town-pump there were gathered when he passed a few old inhabitants, who came there for water whenever they had, as at present, spare time to fetch it, because it was purer from that original fount than from their own wells.
* A device from which poultry may drink.
* (figuratively) That from which something flows or proceeds; a source.
    He is a real fount of knowledge!
** 1759, Robert Robinson, “Hymn I”, in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the Church of Christ: Meeting in Angel-Alley‎, page 3:Come, thou Fount of ev'ry Bleſſing, Tune my Heart to ſing thy Grace: Streams of Mercy never ceaſing, Call for Songs of loudeſt Praiſe:
** 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXIV, page 41:And was the day of my delight ⁠As pure and perfect as I say? ⁠The very source and fount of Day Is dash’d with wandering isles of night.
** 2025 January 3, Christina Izzo, “Cunk On Life is brilliantly funny (and depressingly timely)”, in AV Club‎:In fact, for all of Morgan’s game dopiness and genius timing, the biggest laugh might come from famed particle physicist Brian Cox, who—after having to listen to yet another misguided and meandering anecdote about Cunk’s mate Paul, an ill-informed fount of knowledge for our title star—finally asks: “So what does Paul do?”

##### Synonyms

* font
* fountain
* (device from which animals drink): waterer

##### Derived terms

* fountful
* fountlet
* fount of all wisdom
* fount of honor
* fount of honour
* lamp fount
* soda fount

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From Middle French fonte, feminine past participle of verb fondre (“to melt”).

#### Alternative forms

* font

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fɒnt/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Homophone: font

#### Noun

fount (plural founts)
* (typography, UK, dated) A typographic font.
** 1892, Herbert Giles, A Chinese–English Dictionary, Preface:For the small characters it was in fact imperative to use such a fount as was available; not to mention that no strictly accurate fount of Chinese type has as yet been cast.
** 1933, Dorothy Sayers, chapter 4, in Murder Must Advertise:Mr. Tallboy corrected the misprints, damned their eyes for using the wrong name-block, made it clear to them that they had set the headlines in the wrong fount, cut the proof to pieces, pasted it up again in the correct size, and returned it.
** 1940 May, G. W. J. Potter, “Tickets of the Great Southern Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 292:The company is to be congratulated on the neatness and businesslike look of the tickets, and also on the very clear and artistic founts of type which are used.

### References

* “fount” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.
* Bringhurst, Robert (2002). The Elements of Typographic Style, version 2.5, pp 291–2. Vancouver, Hartley & Marks. →ISBN.
* “fount”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Anagrams

* futon, FUTON, Ufton

## Occitan
### Noun

fount f (plural founts)
* spring, fountain