fountain

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See also: Fountain

English

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A fountain in Stockholm, Sweden
A fountain in Granada, Spain

Etymology

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From Middle English [Term?]; from Old French fontaine (whence modern fontaine); from Late Latin fontana, from Latin fontanus, fontaneus, adjectives from fons (source, spring).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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fountain (plural fountains)

  1. (originally) A natural source of water; a spring.
  2. An artificial, usually ornamental, water feature (usually in a garden or public place) consisting of one or more streams of water originating from a statue or other structure.
  3. The structure from which an artificial fountain can issue.
    • 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, →OL:
      As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.
  4. A reservoir from which liquid can be drawn.
    • 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 208:
      They heard her rouse the sleeping servant, and with her enter the kitchen; then the noise of a fire being lighted and the fountain being filled came to the watchers.
  5. A source or origin of a flow (e.g., of favors or knowledge).
    • 1700, Tom Brown, Amusements Serious and Comical, calculated for the Meridian of London, page 5:
      Nothing will pleaſe ſome Men, but Books ſtuff’d with Antiquity, groaning under the weight of Learned Quotations drawn from the Fountains: And what is all this but Pilfering.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, [], →OCLC, Canto XX, page 33:
      My lighter moods are like to these,
      ⁠That out of words a comfort win;
      ⁠But there are other griefs within,
      And tears that at their fountain freeze; […]
  6. (heraldry) A roundel barry wavy argent and azure.
    • 1928, New England Historic Genealogical Society. Committee on Heraldry, A Roll of Arms:
      Crest : A boar's head couped gold semy of fountains armed gules. Motto : REMIS VELISQUE. Granted by the College of Arms 1966.
    • 1953, United States. Department of the Army. Office of Military History, The Army Lineage Book, page 828:
      Argent, seme of fountains on a chief azure a Lorraine cross and an oak leaf of the first. Crest, None. Motto, Able and Ready. The blue of the shield represents Infantry. The fountains are emblematic of Arizona, []
  7. (juggling) A juggling pattern typically done with an even number of props where each prop is caught by the same hand that throws it.
  8. (US) A soda fountain.
    • 2014, Danielle Sarver Coombs, Bob Batchelor, We Are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life... and Always Has, page 222:
      He takes out a soup bowl, fills it with Pepsi from the fountain, and places it carefully on the counter in front of the boy. “That'll be a quarter,” he says professionally.
    • 2018, Chris Grabenstein, Sandapalooza Shake-up, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 67:
      A Sproke was a soft drink Gloria and I had created with Jimbo’s help at the Banana Shack. It was basically fountain Coke mixed with fountain Sprite.
  9. (US) A drink poured from a soda fountain, or the cup it is poured into.
  10. A ground-based firework that projects sparks similar to a water fountain.
  11. (figurative) Anything that resembles a fountain in operation.
    • 1962 June, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, page 399:
      Travellers over the London & North Western main line in bygone days will need no reminder of the pattering of cinders on the carriage roofs, the fountains of sparks from the chimneys at night and the distance from which the exhaust of approaching locomotives could be heard, due to the fierceness of their blast in such conditions.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

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fountain (third-person singular simple present fountains, present participle fountaining, simple past and past participle fountained)

  1. (intransitive) To flow or gush as if from a fountain.
    Lava fountained from the volcano.
    • 1978, Tom Reamy, Blind Voices:
      The fireflies swept toward him from all directions, in streams and rivers and currents of light, a vortex a hundred yards across, spiraling into the brighter center. They met over his supine body like ocean breakers, cascading, fountaining into the air.

Translations

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See also

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metals main colours less common colours
tincture or argent gules azure sable vert purpure tenné orange sanguine
depiction a shield of gold a shield of silver a shield of red a shield of blue a shield of black a shield of green a shield of purple a shield of brownish orange a shield of bright orange a shield of blood red
roundel (in parentheses: semé): a circle of gold
bezant (bezanty)
a circle of silver
plate (platy)
a circle of red
torteau (tortelly)
a circle of blue
hurt (hurty)
a circle of black
pellet (pellety), ogress
a circle of green
pomme

a circle of purple
golpe (golpy)
a circle of orange
orange (semé of oranges)
a circle of blood red
guze (semé of guzes)
goutte (noun) / gutty (adj) thereof: a drop of gold
(goutte / gutty) d'or (of gold)
a drop of silver
d'eau (of water)
a drop of red
de sang (of blood)
a drop of blue
de larmes (of tears)
a drop of black
de poix

(of pitch)
a drop of green
d'huile / d'olive (olive oil)
a drop of purple



special roundel furs additional, uncommon tinctures:
tincture fountain, syke: barry wavy argent and azure ermine ermines, counter-ermine erminois pean vair counter-vair potent counter-potent bleu celeste, brunâtre, carnation, cendrée (iron, steel, acier), copper, murrey
depiction a circle of wavy blue and silver bars a shield of ermine a shield of ermines a shield of erminois a shield of pean a shield of vair a shield of countervair a shield of potent a shield of counterpotent

References

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  1. ^ fountain”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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