a. and sb. [ad. med.L. fontālis, f. font-, fons FOUNT, FONT.]
A. adj. 1. Of or pertaining to a fountain or spring; coming as from a spring. rare.
1656–81. in Blount, Glossogr.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymn. Evang., Poet. Wks. 1721, I. 69.
| O JESU, who in thy first Infant Bloom, | |
| The Plentitude of GODHEAD didst assume, | |
| Stream from thy fontal Fulness a small Rill, | |
| My soul to purify, sublime, and fill. |
1753. Chambers, Cycl., Suppl., s.v. Alga.… The Alga’s are some marine, or growing in the sea; others fluviatile, or produced in rivers; others fontal, growing in springs.
1822. T. Taylor, Apuleius, III. 58. Then, having charmed the yet breathing fibres, she made a libation with different liquors, at one time with fontal water, at another with the milk of cows, and at another with mountain honey.
1855. P. J. Bailey, Mystic, 85.
| Wayfarer’s tree, | |
| Within whose veins condensed the essential dew | |
| Flows fontal. |
2. Pertaining to the source of anything; that is the source of other things; original, primary.
1677. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. IV. 272. The fontall Unitie and infinite Abyss of his own Essence.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymn. Evang., Poet. Wks. 1721, I. 135.
| But when the SPIRIT comes, whom I bequeath, | |
| When Godhead Fontal and Deriv’d, co-breath; | |
| He’l give my Mission Attestations new, | |
| Who co-eternally my Glory knew. |
1793. T. Taylor, Orat. Julian, Introduction, p. xxx. The fontal sun, then, subsists in Jupiter, the perfect artificer of the world, who produced the hypostasis of the sun from his own essence.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., 95. The fontal truths of natural religion, and the books of Revelation, alike contributed to the flood; and it was long ere my ark touched on an Ararat, and rested.
1858. E. Caswall, Masque of Mary, 16.
| Hail, Mother of all ages! fontal source | |
| Of humankind, who shall from thee become | |
| A multitudinous river, surging on, | |
| In ever-widening and majestic flood, | |
| Into the ocean of eternity! |
1883. A. Roberts, O. T. Revision, vii. 139. The important inquiry, therefore, at once presents itself,—‘Whence was that fontal text derived?’
3. Pertaining to the font, baptismal.
1797[?]. Coleridge, Poems, On the Christening of a Friend’s Child, i.
| This day among the faithful plac’d | |
| And fed with fontal manna; | |
| O with maternal title grac’d | |
| Dear Anna’s dearest Anna! |
1846. Keble, Lyra Innoc. (ed. 3), 6.
| The fontal wave | |
| To each apart the glory gave, | |
| Washing us clean, that we might hide | |
| In His love-pierced side. |
B. sb. † 1. Source, ‘well-spring’ (fig.). Obs.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 379.
| Love’s the Propensive Fontal of our Wills, | |
| From that all Passions are but various Rills. |
2. Her. (see quot. 1828–40).
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. xvi. 365. A Sea Nymph lying along, (or sedant) resting her Arm upon a Water-pot or Fontall, from whence issues water all proper.
1818–40. Berry, Encycl. Her., I., s.v. The gods of fountains and rivers and water nymphs are generally depicted with a water-pot, from which flows the river they represent, which is termed a fontal.
Hence Fontally adv.
a. 1617. Bayne, Diocesans Tryall (1621), 69. It presupposeth the power of jurisdiction to be given originally and fontally to one person of the Church.
