fountainheadn.
1. A fountain or spring from which a stream flows; the head-spring or source of a stream.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > spring > [noun]
welleOE
walma897
spring?1316
spring wellc1340
water springc1450
source1477
fountain1490
quick-spring1530
eye1535
fountainhead1585
fount1594
springlet1661
keld1697
urn1726
spout head1733
spout1778
seep1824
the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > system > [noun] > head or source
headeOE
wellspringOE
springOE
uptaking1241
head wella1325
wellheadc1330
sourcec1386
headspringa1398
headstreama1398
risinga1398
surge1523
springhead?a1560
head fountain1563
water head1567
fountainhead1585
headwater1612
fill1622
water source1651
urn1726
vomica1838
sponge-swamp1901
1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie i. viii. 9 This tower was made..for the garding and keeping of the fountayne heads which from thence are brought..into the citie.
1635 J. Swan Speculum Mundi vi. §2. 206 The sea..is the fountain-head from whence all fountains have their heads.
1708 J. C. Compl. Collier 9 in T. Nourse Mistery of Husbandry Discover'd (ed. 3) Any Water coming from the Fountain, will rise to the height of that Fountain Head.
1774 J. Bryant New Syst. II. 60 I passed through the regions of the north to the fountain-head of the Ister.
1872 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 57 Taking the waters of the streams from their fountain-heads.
2. figurative. The chief or prime source of anything; the quarter whence anything originates; esp. an original source of information, news, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > source or origin > [noun]
welleOE
mothereOE
ordeOE
wellspringeOE
fathereOE
headeOE
oreOE
wellspringOE
rootc1175
morea1200
beginningc1200
head wella1325
sourcec1374
principlea1382
risinga1382
springinga1382
fountain14..
springerc1410
nativity?a1425
racinea1425
spring1435
headspring?a1439
seminaryc1440
originationc1443
spring wellc1450
sourdre1477
primordialc1487
naissance1490
wellhead?1492
offspringa1500
conduit-head1517
damc1540
springhead1547
principium1550
mint1555
principal1555
centre1557
head fountain1563
parentage1581
rise1589
spawna1591
fount1594
parent1597
taproot1601
origin1604
fountainhead1606
radix1607
springa1616
abundary1622
rist1622
primitive1628
primary1632
land-spring1642
extraction1655
upstart1669
progenerator1692
fontala1711
well-eye1826
first birth1838
ancestry1880
Quelle1893
1606 L. Bryskett Disc. Ciuill Life 114 These two vnruly..powers, which are the spring and fountaine head of all disordinate affections.
1655 in E. Nicholas Nicholas Papers (1892) II. 326 As I am..assured from some heere very neare the fountayne head at Bruxells.
1754 S. Foote Knights i. 6 You are about Court; and so being at the Fountain head know what is in the Papers before they are printed.
1787 J. Bentham Def. Usury x. 94 To trace an error to its fountain head is to refute it.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 28 The Convention was the fountain-head from which the authority of all future Parliaments must be derived.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1897; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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