fons

Forms

fōns m (genitive fontis); third declension^[1] An inscription has the ablative fontei; the genitive plural is usually fontium, with fontum in Cicero; archaic funtes is also recorded.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *fonti- (“spring”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dʰonh₂-ti- (“flowing”), from the root of words for running and flowing.^[3][1][4] De Vaan finds the meaning unproblematic but the form harder: Walde and Hofmann assumed a blend of two stems, while Ernout and Meillet took the ⟨o⟩ as the sign of an old root noun.^[3] L&S derived it from the root of fundō (“to pour”).^[5]

Cognate with Sanskrit धन्वति (dhánvati, “flows, runs”).^[3][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius.^[3] Plautus has interbibere sōla, sī vīnō scatat, Corinthiēnsem fontem Pīrēnam potest, “she alone could drink up the Corinthian spring Pirene, if it gushed with wine”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Fōns is a spring, water rising from the ground, and in poetry a stream of any liquid (Ovid of tears).^[2][1] It is the god of springs, whose festival was the Fontānālia (Varro).^[2][3] It is the source of a river (Virgil: fontem superāre Timāvī, “to pass the source of the Timavus”), and figuratively a source, origin (Plautus: fōns vitī et periūrī, “fount of vice and perjury”).^[2][1]

In Church Latin it is also a fountain, a well and a baptistery.^[6][1] In Medieval Latin fōns and fontēs are the baptismal font, and the right to baptize.^[7] English font, a basin for baptism, comes from it in late Old English.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.^[3][4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: Corinthiēnsem fontem Pīrēnam;^[2][4] fōns vitī et periūrī.^[2][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro: the Fontānālia, named after the god Fons.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil: fontem superāre Timāvī.^[2][4]
• late Old English – English font.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spring (of water); a stream (of any liquid).^[2][5][1]
2. Fōns: the god of springs.^[2]
3. The source (of a river).^[2][1]
4. A source, origin, fount.^[2][1][6]
5. A fountain, well.^[1][6]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A baptismal font; a baptistery.^[1][6][7]
7. (Medieval Latin) The right to baptize.^[7]

Word family

• fontālis
• fonticola
• fonticulus
• fontigena
• fontānus
• fontāna

Related words

• Fontānālia
• English font
• English fountain

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com