fonte

fonte¹ spring, fountain; source

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈfõ.t͡ʃi/^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈfõ.tɨ/^[1]

Forms

fonte f (plural fontes)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese also wrote ffonte, fõte and fomthe.^[2][1]

Etymology

The word for a spring is inherited from Latin fōns (“spring, well”), written Old Galician-Portuguese fonte in the oldest texts.^{[3][4][5][1][6]} The Latin noun was masculine, but changed gender in the 4th century, as other nouns of the third declension did, and is feminine in the Romance languages.^[3][7][5]

The same Latin word is Galician fonte, Spanish fuente, Catalan font, Italian fonte and French fonts (“baptismal font”).^[8][7][9]

The Latin word goes back to *fonti-, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰonh₂-ti- (“flowing”), with a probable cognate in Sanskrit धन्वति (dhanvati, “to run, flow”).^[10][1] Wiktionary refers it to the root *dʰenh₂- (“to flow”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 830 already has ad fonte calata.^[2] In vernacular charters the word appears from 1260, in the formula a montes et a ffontes “with hills and springs”, used in sales and gifts of land; one of 1270 has a montes e a fontes cũ todas suas pertienças “with hills and springs and all their appurtenances”.^[2] The cantigas d'amigo of Pero Meogo sing of the spring where the stags go to drink, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria of hũa font' ... mui crara e mui fremosa “a spring very clear and very beautiful”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Cantigas de Santa Maria already use the figurative sense: the Virgin font' es de todo ben “is the source of all good”.^[2] Barbosa (1611) records fontes da testa for the temples of the head.^[11] Bluteau (1712–1728) describes the fonte of surgery, a small wound kept open with a caustic to drain bad humours.^[12] Morais (1813) adds the baptismal font and “origin”, as the sun is the source of light.^[13]

The modern senses grew from the sense “origin”: a person who gives a journalist information, the original text of a work, and in physics and electronics a system that supplies light, heat or current.^[3][14][15] In Brazilian surveys it also means a brook.^[16]

Timeline

• 830 – a Latin charter has ad fonte calata.^[2]
• 1260 – a montes et a ffontes in a charter.^[2]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the cantigas d'amigo.^[2][3]
• c. 1400 – fonte in a fragment of a Flos Sanctorum (witness 1380–1425).^[17]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Fonte with Latin fons.^[18]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists fontes da testa “temples”.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the surgical fonte.^[12]
• 1813 – Morais: the baptismal font, and “origin”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spring, a place where water rises from the ground: uma fonte de água fresca.^[3][19][1]
2. A fountain: a public spout or tap where people fetch water; an ornamental fountain in a square or park.^[3][14][20]
3. (figurative) A source, origin or cause: Esta fábrica é a principal fonte de emprego da vila.^[3][1]
4. A person or document that supplies information, especially to the press: O jornal não revelou a fonte.^[3][15]
5. (philology) An original text or document.^[3][21]
6. (anatomy) Each side of the head between the eye and the ear; the temple.^[3][20][1]
7. (physics, electronics) A system or device that supplies light, heat, energy or current; a power supply.^[3][1]
8. (Christianity) The baptismal font, in fonte batismal.^[3][14]
9. (obsolete) A wound kept open by cautery to drain humours.^[12][21]

Word family

• fontainha
• fontanário
• código-fonte
• língua-fonte

fonte² font (typography)

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈfõ.t͡ʃi/^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈfõ.tɨ/^[1]

Forms

fonte f (plural fontes)^[1]

Etymology

The word for a font of type is borrowed from English font, according to Houaiss, which is from French fonte, from a popular Latin noun *fundita, a participle of fundō (“to pour, melt, cast”).^[3] Michaelis takes it straight from French, and Wiktionary from the Latin verb.^[21][1]

Semantic evolution

In typography the word named the complete set of matrices in a typesetting machine and the letters of one size and face in a type case; computing took it over for a set of characters with a common design.^[3][21] Michaelis also gives under the French word the sense “cast iron”.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. (typography) A complete set of type of one face and size: Mudou a fonte do título.^[3][21][1]
2. (typography) The full set of matrices in the magazine of a typesetting machine.^[3][21]
3. (computing) A set of characters with a common design; a font.^[3][21]
4. cast iron, an iron alloy with 2.5 to 4 per cent carbon.^[21]