fount
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: agriculture
business
lifestyle
Etymology: Clipping of fountain, on the pattern of the pair mount, mountain.
Inflected forms:
form: founts
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Synonym of fountain (“a natural source of water”); a spring.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
poetic
examples: VVhy ſhould the vvorme intrude the maiden bud? / Or hatefull Kuckcovves [cuckoos] hatch in Sparrovvs neſts? / Or Todes infect faire founts vvith venome mud? / […] / But no perfection is ſo abſolute, / That ſome impuritie doth not pollute.
[T]his top-proud fellovv, / […] / From ſincere motions, by Intelligence, / And proofes as cleere as Founts in Iuly, vvhen / VVee ſee each graine of grauell; I doe knovv / To be corrupt and treaſonous.
[F]rom that Saphire Fount the criſped Brooks, / Rovvling on Orient Pearl and ſands of Gold, / VVith mazie error under pendant ſhades / Ran Nectar, viſiting each plant, and fed / Flours vvorthy of Paradiſe […]
[F]rom the rock, vvith liquid lapſe diſtills / A limpid fount; that ſpread in parting rills / Its current thence to ſerve the city brings: […]
High to their fount, this day, amid the hills, / And vvoodlands vvarbling round, trace up the brooks; […]
[I]f a perſon did but call at a poor farmer's to aſk the vvay to any place, it vvas next to a cuſtom to aſk him to drink a mug of beer or cyder, and eat a cruſt of bread and cheeſe. But alas! alas! It is not ſo novv. No, it is all over! The graceful cuſtom's loſt; and the thirſty friend and hunger-bitten traveller may ſuck the cryſtal fount, or lick the duſt!
And what adds beauty to utility, and both finely blended, is the fountain in the front door yard. The jet is about ten feet high, the water falling into a circular fount, or reservoir, about fifteen feet in diameter and two feet deep. […] The arrangement of the pipes is such at the fount that the water is conveyed to the barn for the stock, to the kitchen for culinary purposes, or permitted to pass through the jet at pleasure.
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.
gloss: A device from which poultry may drink; a waterer.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
broadly
examples: A. H. Hews & Co., North Cambridge, Mass. Manufacturers of Poultry Water Founts. Capacities one quart, two quarts, three quarts, and four quarts. For sale, wholesale and retail.
On north side an alley six feet wide whole length of building, partitioned as follows: 1st, Feed troughs and water founts; above these, at proper height, two tiers of nest boxes, one above the other— […]
gloss: That from which something proceeds; an origin, a source.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: He is a real fount of knowledge!
This was the ſad beginning of our woes / that was from hell on wretched mortalls hurld / & from this fount did all thoſe miſchiefes flow / whoſe inundation drowneth all the world.
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: […]
O, I see the crescent promise of my spirit hath not set. / Ancient founts of inspiration well thro' all my fancy yet.
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.
Winifred Jenkins and Tabitha Bramble [in Smollett's work The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1777)] must keep Englishmen on the grin for ages yet to come; and in their letters and the story of their loves there is a perpetual fount of sparkling laughter, as inexhaustible as Bladud's well.
In fact, for all of [Diane] 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?"
Derived words: fountful
founting
fountlet
fount of all wisdom
fount of honor
fount of honour
lamp fount
soda fount
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