What is "fountain"

Fountain \Foun"tain\ (foun"t[i^]n), n. [F. fontaine, LL. fontana, fr. L. fons, fontis. See 2d Fount.]

1. A spring of water issuing from the earth.

2. An artificially produced jet or stream of water; also, the structure or works in which such a jet or stream rises or flows; a basin built and constantly supplied with pure water for drinking and other useful purposes, or for ornament.

3. A reservoir or chamber to contain a liquid which can be conducted or drawn off as needed for use; as, the ink fountain in a printing press, etc.

4. The source from which anything proceeds, or from which anything is supplied continuously; origin; source. Judea, the fountain of the gospel. --Fuller. Author of all being, Fountain of light, thyself invisible. --Milton. Air fountain. See under Air. Fountain heead, primary source; original; first principle. --Young. Fountain inkstand, an inkstand having a continual supply of ink, as from elevated reservoir. Fountain lamp, a lamp fed with oil from an elevated reservoir. Fountain pen, a pen with a reservoir in the handle which furnishes a supply of ink. Fountain pump.

   1. A structure for a fountain, having the form of a pump.

   2. A portable garden pump which throws a jet, for watering plants, etc.

      Fountain shell (Zo["o]l.), the large West Indian conch shell ( Strombus gigas).

      Fountain of youth, a mythical fountain whose waters were fabled to have the property of renewing youth.

early 15c., "spring of water that collects in a pool," from Old French fontaine "natural spring" (12c.), from Medieval Latin fontana "fountain, a spring" (source of Spanish and Italian fontana), from post-classical noun use of fem. of Latin fontanus "of a spring," from fons (genitive fontis) "spring (of water)," from PIE root *dhen- (1) "to run, flow" (cognates: Sanskrit dhanayati, Old Persian danuvatiy "flows, runs").\n

\nThe extended sense of "artificial jet of water" (and the structures that make them) is first recorded c.1500. Hence also fountain-pen (by 1823), so called for the reservoir that supplies a continuous flow of ink. "A French fountain-pen is described in 1658 and Miss Burney used one in 1789" [Weekley]. Fountain of youth, and the story of Ponce de Leon's quest for it, seem to have been introduced in American English by Hawthorne's "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" (January 1837).\n\n"Did you never hear of the 'Fountain of Youth'?" asked Dr. Heidegger, "which Ponce de Leon, the Spanish adventurer, went in search of two or three centuries ago?"\n

n. 1 (label en originally) A spring, natural source of water. 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. vb. To flow or gush as if from a fountain.

1. n. a structure from which an artificially produced jet of water arises

2. a natural flow of ground water [syn: spring, outflow, outpouring, natural spring]

3. an artificially produced flow of water [syn: jet]

4. a plumbing fixture that provides a flow of water [syn: fount]

Fountain is a free and open-source plain text markup language that makes it possible to write a formatted screenplay in any text editor, on any device, using any software that edits text files.

Fountain (which got its name from Fountain Avenue, the famous Hollywood shortcut) was inspired by John Gruber’s Markdown, and has its origins in two different and non-related projects: Scrippets, developed by John August and Nima Yousefi, and Screenplay Markdown, developed by Stu Maschwitz.

A fountain (from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), a source or spring) is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air to supply drinking water and/or for a decorative or dramatic effect.

Fountains were originally purely functional, connected to springs or aqueducts and used to provide drinking water and water for bathing and washing to the residents of cities, towns and villages. Until the late 19th century most fountains operated by gravity, and needed a source of water higher than the fountain, such as a reservoir or aqueduct, to make the water flow or jet into the air.

In addition to providing drinking water, fountains were used for decoration and to celebrate their builders. Roman fountains were decorated with bronze or stone masks of animals or heroes. In the Middle Ages, Moorish and Muslim garden designers used fountains to create miniature versions of the gardens of paradise. King Louis XIV of France used fountains in the Gardens of Versailles to illustrate his power over nature. The baroque decorative fountains of Rome in the 17th and 18th centuries marked the arrival point of restored Roman aqueducts and glorified the Popes who built them.

By the end of the 19th century, as indoor plumbing became the main source of drinking water, urban fountains became purely decorative. Mechanical pumps replaced gravity and allowed fountains to recycle water and to force it high into the air. The Jet d'Eau in Lake Geneva, built in 1951, shoots water in the air. The highest such fountain in the world is King Fahd's Fountain in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which spouts water above the Red Sea.

Fountains are used today to decorate city parks and squares; to honor individuals or events; for recreation and for entertainment. A Splash pad or spray pool allows city residents to enter, get wet and cool off in summer. The musical fountain combines moving jets of water, colored lights and recorded music, controlled by a computer, for dramatic effects. Drinking fountains provide clean drinking water in public buildings, parks and public spaces.

The fountain is a juggling pattern that is the method most often used for juggling an even number of objects. In a fountain, each hand juggles separately, and the objects are not thrown between the hands. To illustrate this, it can be seen that in the most common fountain pattern where four balls are juggled, each hand juggles two balls independently. As Crego states "In the fountain pattern, each hand throws balls straight up into the air and each ball is caught in the same hand that throws it."

A fountain can be synchronous or asynchronous. In a synchronous fountain, both hands throw at the same time, while in an asynchronous fountain, the hands alternate throws. "The fountain pattern...can be stably performed in two ways...one can perform the fountain with different frequencies for the two hands, but that coordination is difficult because of the tendency of the limbs to synchronize." The fountain is juggled in either a circular fashion or in columns. The circular method means that the balls juggled travel in a circle like motion with the jugglers hands throwing the ball from a point close to their body centre line and catching the ball further away from their body centre line. This circle motion is called 'outside circles' and is the fountain pattern shown in the animation. This circle method can be reversed to create an 'inside circle' pattern whereby throws are from a position away from the body midline and catches are closer to the body midline. In the columns method the balls all travel vertically up and down in their own 'column', and are caught from where they are thrown.

The fountain is used for juggling even numbers of objects because other patterns which alternate between hands, such as the cascade, do not work well for even numbers of objects.

Fountain is a 1917 work produced by Marcel Duchamp. The piece was a porcelain urinal, which was signed "R.Mutt" and titled Fountain. Submitted for the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, in 1917, the first annual exhibition by the Society to be staged at The Grand Central Palace in New York, Fountain was rejected by the committee, even though the rules stated that all works would be accepted from artists who paid the fee. Fountain was displayed and photographed at Alfred Stieglitz's studio, and the photo published in The Blind Man, but the original has been lost. The work is regarded by art historians and theorists of the avant-garde, such as Peter Bürger, as a major landmark in 20th-century art. 17 replicas commissioned by Duchamp in the 1960s now exist.

A fountain is a source of water.

Fountain may also refer to:

• Fountain (heraldry), a roundel with wavy blue and white stripes in heraldry
• Fountain of Youth, legendary spring that reputedly restores youth, a symbol of The Fountain as the absolute principle of the universe
• Soda fountain, carbonated drink dispenser
• Drinking fountain, a fountain designed to provide drinking water
• Space fountain, proposed form of space elevator
• Musical fountain, animated fountain created by the effects of sound waves and laser against water
• Fountain pen, writing instrument

Fountain or syke is in the terminology of heraldry a roundel depicted as a roundel barry wavy argent and azure, that is, containing alternating horizontal wavy bands of blue and silver.

Because the fountain consists equally of parts in a metal and a colour, its use is not limited by the rule of tincture as are the other roundels. The fountain may be made in any heraldic tinctures, but unless otherwise stated, it is silver and blue.

If the blazon of a coat of arms contains the word fountain, it is not a natural, water-gushing fountain which should be depicted but a roundel like this.

Syke, an alternative name for fountain, is a Northern English dialect word for "well" and features on the canting arms of the Sykes family.