Talk:font

RFV discussion

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Noun sense #1: a fountain.

Um, no. That would be a fount. Is this an error, or is it really used this way in England? (It does not have that meaning in GenAm.) --Connel MacKenzie 00:39, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

I take it you're not a fan of Shakespeare? :-)

Font definitely has an archaic sense of fountain, whence also a still-current metaphorical sense, found in phrases like "a font of knowledge". (The best definition for the sense in current use would be something like "An inexhaustible source; construed with of.") In all such uses fount is found as well, albeit perhaps less commonly.

—Ruakh_TALK 05:51, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Um Ruakh, the only two uses of font in Shakespeare refer to a baptismal font. However, this disputed definition is valid and not an error, albeit dated/archaic. The OED describes this use as "now only poetic". I did find one quote on Wikisourse, but the vast majority of them refer to baptismal fonts.

• 1887 — Henry Rider Haggard, She, ch XXIII

  "Ah, my Holly," she said, "thou art of a truth like those old Jews--of whom the memory vexes me so sorely--unbelieving, and hard to accept that which they have not known. But thou shalt see; for unless my mirror beyond lies," and she pointed to the font of crystal water, "the path is yet open as it was of old time. And now let us start upon the new life which shall end--who knoweth where?"

There is also a figurative sense derived from this: "a source, a wellspring" which is missing from the page, as seen in expressions like "font of wisdom" and as evidenced by the quotes below.

• 1824 — George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan, canto V

  A gaudy taste; for they are little skill'd in
  The arts of which these lands were once the font

• 1910 — Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, part II

  As I am not drawing here on the font of imagination to refresh that of fact and experience, I do not suggest that the Tarot set the example of expressing Secret Doctrine in pictures and that it was followed by Hermetic writers; but it is noticeable that it is perhaps the earliest example of this art.

• 1915 — Woodrow Wilson, Third State of the Union Address

  I am interested to fix your attention on this prospect now because unless you take it within your view and permit the full significance of it to command your thought I cannot find the right light in which to set forth the particular matter that lies at the very font of my whole thought as I address you to-day.

--EncycloPetey 08:23, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Those seem to be scanning errors of "fount" though, right? --Connel MacKenzie 16:37, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

"Font of wisdom", "font of knowledge", "font of information", and "font of understanding" all get more Google hits than their counterparts in fount, and I couldn't find any phrases so constructed where a version with fount got more hits than a version with font. That said, all of them are pretty close. —Ruakh_TALK 17:14, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the correction, EncycloPetey; mea culpa. (I think I used to think that a baptismal font was an actual fountain, which might explain my confusion.) —Ruakh_TALK 17:14, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

RFV failed, sense removed. (It's unfortunate, because the OED has five quotations it says belongs to this sense, but what can ya do?) —Ruakh_TALK 02:10, 7 November 2007 (UTC)