fountain [ME] A fountain was originally used to mean a natural spring of water rather than an artificial one, and comes from Latin fontana ‘spring’. Fount, ‘source’ (the French for ‘spring of water’, in English from the late Middle Ages) was formed in English in the late 16th century. The baptismal font [OE] comes from the same root, although the printing font [L16th], made from melted and cast metal, comes from fondre (see found).