The story
Latin: fōns (“fount, source”) + honōrum (“of honours”; the genitive plural form of honor (“honour”)) = “source of honours” ≈ “fount of honour”
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
fons honorum
Today it means: A person who, by virtue of sovereignty, holds the exclusive right to create and confer legitimate titles of nobility and orders of chivalry. Full definition →