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Font or fount?
Should one say THE FONT OF ALL KNOWLEDGE
OR THE FOUNT OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. Which is correct historically?
Answers
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.The following quote is from 'An Essay Concerning Human Understanding' by John Locke, the 17th century philosopher. Clearly, he was referring to God.
"Reason is natural revelation, whereby the eternal father of light, and fountain of all knowledge, communicates to mankind that portion of truth which he has laid within the reach of their natural facilities."
In a 14th century book, God was referred to as "the fountain of all goodness" and in the 16th century Book of Common Prayer there is a reference to "Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom". However, Locke's quote - given above - is the earliest reference to �knowledge' in this context.
Given that there is an original quotation from John Locke (see my earlier response) which refers specifically to: "the fountain of all knowledge"...ie the point of the question, presumably...there does not seem to be much reason to suggest that 'font/fount' are somehow "correct". These are simply more modern variants of the original. I appreciate that people use these variants, but there does not appear to be any record of their earliest appearance. A lot later than the 'fountain' version, I'll be bound!
If your variety of OED does have such a quote, presumably it lists an earliest date at which it was recorded. Was it earlier than 1690, as that is the year of publication of the Locke 'fountain of all knowledge' quote that I keep referring to? If so, then I shall happily withdraw my claim that the original "whatever of all knowledge" is the 'fountain' version. I await the evidence.
By the way, 'fountain', meaning an artificial vertical jet of water, dates back to 1509!
Cheers
Oh dear I seem to have opened a can of worms(?) here AND put the cat among the pigeons(?). To all intents and purposes you have answered my question. The rest is semantics surely. Bless you all for your efforts. You are indeed the founts of all knowledge!
"Before you criticise the other fellow, walk a mile in his shoes. Then when you criticise him you'll be a mile away and wearing his shoes"
In the US, both words can mean source. According to the A. Merriam-Webster dictionary, they both entered Middle English from Middle French "font", from Latin "fons", meaning fountain.
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/font
There's also another word "font", which is derived from the same French and Latin sources as the word "foundry", and which means a set of characters used for printing, which were commonly made by melting and casting metal.