Etymologically
Log in

fonte

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 06:19. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Forms

fonte f (plural fonti)[1] In the sense “baptismal font” the noun is masculine.[1][2][3] Old Italian forms include font and fonto.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fōns (“spring, source”), from the accusative fontem.[2][5][6][1] The word is found in most Romance languages: Occitan fon, Catalan font, Spanish fuente, Portuguese fonte and Friulian font.[5][7] It is missing in Romanian, Sardinian and French, where French fonts (“baptismal font”) is a learned word.[8][7] The derivative fontana goes back to the Late Latin noun fontāna, properly “spring water”.[2]

DELI calls the origin of the Latin word uncertain.[2] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *fonti- and Proto-Indo-European *dʰonh₂-ti- (“flowing”), and compares Sanskrit धन्वति (dhánvati, “flows”);[9][5] Nocentini makes the same comparison.[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Brunetto Latini's Rettorica, about 1260–1261, in Florentine.[4] DELI dates the senses “spring” and “origin, principle” to Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used fonte for a natural spring, for a built fountain, and, from the end of the 13th century, in the Novellino, for the basin of baptismal water;[2][4] Dante made it masculine in that sense.[2][4] The phrase levare al fonte meant “to stand godparent at a baptism”.[4] Figurative senses were there from the start: the eyes as the source of tears, the sun as the source of light, God as the source of grace.[4][6] Dante's Inferno describes the water from “mille fonti, credo, e più” (a thousand springs, I think, and more) that bathes the land between Garda and Val Camonica.[6]

The plural fonti for the original documents of history is recorded from 1559, in Bartolomeo Cavalcanti.[2] Modern senses include a source of information, a source of law, and sources of energy and income, as in ritenuta alla fonte “tax withheld at source”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 1260–1261 – Brunetto Latini uses fonte.[4]
  • Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it for “spring” and “origin”.[2]
  • End of the 13th century – The Novellino uses it for the baptismal font.[2]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses the word as a masculine for the font.[2]
  • 1559 – Bartolomeo Cavalcanti uses fonti for historical documents.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A spring, water flowing out of the ground; the source of a river.[6][3][1]
  2. (literary) A stream or pool of spring water.[6]
  3. A fontana, a public fountain.[6]
  4. (figurative) A source, cause or origin: una fonte di preoccupazione.[6][3][1]
  5. A person or body that provides information: Lo so da una fonte attendibile.[6][3]
  6. (chiefly plural) The documents from which history is reconstructed; in literary criticism, a work's models.[6][2]
  7. (masculine) The baptismal font: il fonte battesimale.[2][3][1]

Word family

  • fontana
  • fontanella
  • fontaniere
  • fontanile
  • fontale
  • Latin fons
  • Spanish fuente

Usage notes

In printing and computing a separate fonte (1956) is an uncommon Italian form of font, from English font and French fonte “casting”.[6][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1683
  9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill