fount

plural founts

1. archaicpoeticSynonym of fountain (“a natural source of water”); a spring.First known use late 16th c.

   High to their fount, this day, amid the hills, / And vvoodlands vvarbling round, trace up the brooks; […]

   a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 17, lines 396–397

   5 more 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.

   1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, signature G, recto

   [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.

   1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 207, column 1

   [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 […]

   1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature M2, verso, lines 237–241

   [F]rom the rock, vvith liquid lapſe diſtills / A limpid fount; that ſpread in parting rills / Its current thence to ſerve the city brings: […]

   1726, Homer, “Book XVII”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume IV, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 119, lines 232–234

   [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!

   1772, W. P., Forestallers and Engrossers Detected: With a Plan for Restoring Plenty once more to Old England! […], 2nd edition, London: […] R. Hawes, […], →OCLC, pages 5–6

   Synonyms: font, fountain

2. archaicbroadlyagricultureA device from which poultry may drink; a waterer.

   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.

   1872 July, “Price Lists Received”, in The Poultry World. For the Fancier, Family, and Market Poulterer, volume I, number 7, Hartford, Conn.: H. H. Stoddard, →OCLC, page 90, column 2

   1 more example

   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— […]

   1882 January, “Poultry-house”, in The Poultry World: For the Fancier, Family, and Market Poulterer, volume XI, number 1, Hartford, Conn.: H. H. Stoddard, […], →OCLC, page 5, column 3

3. figurativelyThat from which something proceeds; an origin, a source.First known use early 17th c.

   He is a real fount of knowledge!

   5 more examples

   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.

   1606?, Michaell Drayton [i.e., Michael Drayton], “The Fourth Eglog”, in Poemes Lyrick and Pastorall. […], London: […] R. B[radock] for N[icholas] L[ing] and I[ohn] Flasket, →OCLC; republished in Poemes Lyrick and Pastorall (Publications of the Spenser Society, New Series; 4), [Manchester: […] Charles E. Simms] for the Spenser Society, 1891, →OCLC, page 54

   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: […]

   Chris Fenner (22 September 2024), “Come, thou fount of every blessing”, in Hymnology Archive, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2025

   O, I see the crescent promise of my spirit hath not set. / Ancient founts of inspiration well thro' all my fancy yet.

   1835, Alfred Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 111

   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.

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXIV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 41

   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.

   1853, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Lecture the Fifth. Hogarth, Tobias Smollett, and Fielding.”, in The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century. […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co. […]; Bombay, Maharashtra: Smith, Taylor, & Co., →OCLC, page 250

plural founts

1. UKarchaicArchaic spelling of font.

   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.

   1940 May, G. W. J. Potter, “Tickets of the Great Southern Railways”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 292

   4 more examples

   Of each Body he provides a Fount ſuitable to ſuch ſorts of VVork as he deſigns to do; But he provides not an equal vvieght^([sic – meaning weight]) of every Fount; Becauſe all theſe Bodies are not in equal uſe: For the Long-Primmer, Pica and Engliſh are the Bodies that are generally moſt uſed; And therefore he provides very large Founts of theſe, viz. of the Long-Primmer in a ſmall Printing-Houſe; Five hundred Pounds vveight Romain and Italica, vvhereof One hundred and fifty Pounds may be Italica.

   1683, Joseph Moxon, “Numb[er] II. Applied to the Art of Printing.”, in Mechanick Exercises: Or, The Doctrine of Handy-Works. Applied to the Art of Printing. […], volume II, London: […] Joseph Moxon […], →OCLC, § 2 (Of Letter), page 17

   Founts are large or ſmall, according to the demand of the printer. vvho orders them by the hundred vveight, or by ſheets. VVhen a printer orders a fount of five hundred, he means that the fount, conſiſting of letters, points, ſpaces, quadrates, &c. ſhall vveigh 500 ℔. […] [A] fount does not contain an equal number of a and b, or of b and c, &c. the letter-founders have therefore a lift or tariff, or as the French call it, a police, by vvhich they regulate the proportions betvveen the different ſorts of characters that compoſe a fount; […]

   1765, Temple Henry Croker, Thomas Williams, Samuel Clark [et al.], “FOUNT, or Font”, in The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. […], volume II, London: […] J. Wilson & J. Fell, […], →OCLC, signature [Kk3], verso, column 1

   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.

   1892, Herbert Giles, “Preface”, in A Chinese–English Dictionary, London: Bernard Quaritch […]; Shanghai; Hongkong: Kelly and Walsh, →OCLC, page v

   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.

   1933, Dorothy L[eigh] Sayers, “Murder Must Advertise. Chapter 4. Remarkable Acrobatics of a Harlequin.”, in The Five Red Herrings (Suspicious Characters) and Murder Must Advertise, Garden City, N.Y.: Nelson Doubleday, published [1977?], →OCLC, page 344

1. SouthernUSalternativeAlternative form of found (past tense of find)