fontange 
able in tne seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies. It arose from the use of a ribbon by the Duchesse 
(then Mademoiselle) de Fontanges (about 1680) to fasten 
her coiffure when her hat had blown off , with bows falling 
gracefully over the brow. The name was applied to many 
modifications of the original simpli) ribbon or band of lace. 
A cap with trimmings of lace, and later a high head-dress 
similar to the commode, were successively called by tins 
name. 
The Duchess of Burgundy immediately undressed, and 
appeared in a funtini,/,' of the new standard. 
gentleman Instructed, p. 106. 
fontaniert, Beefountaineer. 
Fontarabian (fon-ta-ra'bi-an), a. [< Fontiira- 
bia, Sp. Fiienterrabi'a, in Spain, + -.] Of or 
pertaining to Fontarabia or Fuenterrabia, a 
town in northern Spain near the French fron- 
tier, near which occurred the defeat of the rear- 
guard of Charlemagne's army by the Saracens 
and the death of Roland; hence, relating to 
this battle in the legends of Roland. 
for a blast of that dread horn 
On Fontarabian echoes borne. 
Scott, Marmion, vi. 33. 
fonticulus (fon-tik'u-lus), . ; pi. fonticuli (-Ii). 
[L., a little fountain, dim. of fon(t-)s, a foun- 
tain : see font 1 , fount 1 ."] 1. In surg., a small 
ulcer produced artificially either by caustics or 
by incisions. 2. In anat., the depression (fon- 
ticulus gutturis) at the root of the neck in 
front, just over the top of the breast-bone, 
formed by the slanting backward of the wind- 
pipe. It is well marked in emaciated per- 
sons. 
Fontinaleae (fon-ti-na'le-e), . pi. [NL., < Fon- 
tinalis + -ea;.~\ The tribe of mosses which 
constitute the group Cladocarpei; the water- 
mosses. They are aquatic plants with dioecious 
flowers. The genera are Fontinalis and Diche- 
lynia. 
Fontinalis (fon-ti-na'lis), n. [NL., named in 
allusion to the place of growth, < L. fontinalis, 
pertaining to a fountain : see fontinel.] A ge- 
nus of cladocarpous aquatic mosses, repre- 
sentative of the tribe Fontinalew. The cilia of 
the inner peristome are united into a cone by 
transverse bars. 
fontinel (fon'ti-nel), n. [< OF. fontenele, fon- 
tainele,fontanele,fontenelle,etc.,f.,e,little foun- 
tain (F.fontanelle, in a special sense, f ontanelle: 
aeefontanelle), dim. of fontaine, a fountain: see 
fountain.'] 1. A little fount or fountain. 
Let some of those precious distilling tears, which na- 
ture, and thy compassion, and thy sufferings, did cause to 
2307 
P Hen. I did never see such pitiful rascals. 
Fal. Tut, tut ; good enough to toss : food for powder, 
food for powder ; they'll fill a pit as well as better. 
Shak., 1 Hen. IV., iv. 2. 
I am tempted to believe that plots, conspiracies, wars, 
victories, and massacres are ordained by Providence only 
&s food for the historian. Iniivj, Knickerbocker, p. 208. 
4f. A person fed or brought up ; a person, as a 
child, under nurture ; in an extended sense, any 
person; a creature. 
Among hem athulf the gode, 
Mill osene child, my leue/od. 
King Horn (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1340. 
My foode that I have fed. Toutneley Mysteries, p. 223. 
God rue on thee, poor luckless fode ! 
What has thou to do here ? 
Child Rowland (Child's Ballads, I. 260). 
Animal food. See animal, a. Nitrogenized and non- 
nitrogenized foods. See nitrogenized. =Syn. 1. Prov- 
ender etc (see feed, n.); sustenance, fare, cheer, viands. 
foodH (fod), v. t. [< ME. foden, a parallel form 
offeden, feed: see food 1 , feed.] To feed; sup- 
ply; figuratively, to soothe; flatter; entertain 
with promises. 
[He] acoyed it [the child] to come to him & clepud [called] 
hit oft, 
& faded it with floures & wite f airh by -best. 
William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 66. 
He wnsfooded forth iu vain with long talk. 
Baret, Alvearie. 
food a t, . An improper form of feud 1 . 
Hurles forth his thundring dart with deadly food. 
Spenser, F. Q., I. viii. 9. 
food-fish (fod'fish), n. A kind of fish or fishes 
suitable for and used as food. 
In order for Congress to be able to legislate intelligently 
tor the protection of food-fishes, it is necessary that their 
habits should be understood. Science, XI. 236. 
foodful (fod'ful), a. l< food 1 + -ful.'] Supply- 
ing food ; full of food. [Poetical.] 
There Tityus was to see, who took his birth 
From heav'n, his nursing from the foodful c' 
The falling waters led me, 
The foodful waters fed me. 
Emerson, Woodnotes, i. 
fopdingt, [Verbal n. of food*, v .] A provi- 
sion of food. 
Thou might'st have thought and prov'd a wiser lad, 
(As Joan her fooding bought) som good, som bad. 
Wits' Recreations (1654). 
foodless (fod'les), a. [</o<wJi + -less.'} With- 
out food ; destitute of provisions ; barren. 
Thefoodlcjs wilds 
Pour forth their brown inhabitants. 
Thomson, Winter, 1. 256. 
fool 
By the Statute De Prerogative Regis, 17 Edw. II., c. 9, 
the kin;; shall have the custody of the lands of natural 
fools, taking the profits of them without waste or destruc- 
tion, and shall find them their necessaries. 
Kapalje ami Lawrence, Law Diet., p. 623. 
2. One who is deficient in judgment or sense ; 
a silly or stupid person; one who manifests 
either habitual or occasional lack of discern- 
ment or common sense : chiefly used as a term 
of disparagement, contempt, or self-deprecia- 
tion. 
Sche . . . seyde that he was a fool, to desire that he 
myghte not have. MandeMle, Travels, p. 146. 
The/ooJ hath said in his heart, There is no God. 
Ps. xiv. 1. 
Experience keeps a dear school, but Fools will learn in 
no other. Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, 1758. 
[Used formerly, like wretch, as a term of endearment and 
tenderness (with a spice of pity). 
'Beseech your highness, 
My women may be with me. . . . Do not weep, good fools; 
There is no cause. Shak., W. T., ii. 1.] 
3. One who counterfeits mental weakness or 
folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a re- 
tainer dressed in motley, with a pointed cap 
and bells on his head, and a mock scepter or 
bauble in his hand, formerly kept by persons 
of rank for the purpose of making sport. See 
2. Same &s fontanelle. 
font-namet (font'nam), n. A baptismal or 
Christian name. 
Some presume Boston to be his Christian, of Bury [de 
Bury] his Sirname. But ... Boston is no Font-name. 
Fuller, Worthies, Lincoln, ii. 20. 
fontstonet n. [M.E.fontston,fontstan,fanteton, 
f antstan (also funtston,f ountston),< font, f ant, 
etc., fontl + ston, stare, stone; cf. equiv. ME. 
funtfat = AS. fantfcet, <fant, font, + fait, fat, 
vat, a vessel.] A baptismal font of stone. 
The same year Edmund receavd at the Sf ..this 
or another Anlas. Milton, Hist. Eng., v. 
food-rent! (fod'rent), n. Rent in kind. 
Tne rent in kind, or /ood-re(, which was thus propor- 
tioned to the stock received, unquestionably developed in 
time into a rent payable in respect of the tenants' land 
Maine, Early Hist, of Institutions, p. 100. 
food-stuff (fod'stuf ), n. A substance or ma- 
terial suitable for food ; anything used for the 
sustenance of man. 
food-vacuole (fod'vak"u-ol), n. A temporary 
vaeuole or clear space m the endosarc of a 
protozoan, due to the presence of a particle of 
fOO, n. 
food 1 (fod), n. [< ME. foode, fode, < AS. foda, 
food; cf. LG. vode = loel.'faidki, n.,fcedha, f., 
= Sw. foda = Dan. fode = Goth, fodeins, food ; 
to the same root belong feed (AS. fedan, < foda, 
food), fodder 1 , foster 1 ; cf. OHG. fatunga, food, 
nourishment ; < Teut. / "fod, *fad = Gr. 7rar- 
aBat, eat ; cf . L. pascere, feed : see pasture, pas- 
tor.] 1. What is eaten for nourishment ; what- 
ever supplies nourishment to organic bodies ; 
nutriment; aliment; victuals; provisions: as, 
the food of animals consists mainly of organic 
substances; a great scarcity of food; the food 
of plants. 
Feed me with/ood convenient for me. Prov. xxx. 8. 
But mice, and rats, and such small deer, 
Have been Tom's food for seven long year. 
Shak., Lear, iii. 4. 
And homeless near a thousand homes I stood, 
And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food. 
Wordsworth, Guilt and Sorrow. 
Hence 2. Anything that sustains, nourishes, 
and augments. 
If music be the food of love, play on, 
Give me excess of it. Shak., T. N., i. 1. 
The food of hope 
Is meditated action. Tennyson. 
3. Anything serving as material for consump- 
tion or use. 
of the animal, and often has a kind of rhythmic systole 
and diastole. 
foodyt (fo'di), a. [</ood!i + -2/i.] 1. Eatable; fit 
for food. 2. Food-bearing; fertile; fruitful. 
Who brought them to the sable fleet from Ida's foody leas. 
Chapman, Iliad, xi. 104. 
food-yolk (f6d ' yok), n. That part of the yolk 
of a meroblastic egg which serves to nourish 
the embryo, as distinguished from the forma- 
tive or germinative substance ; deutoplasm. 
Thus, in a hen's egg all of the ball of yellow ex- 
cept the little tread or cicatricula is food-yolk. 
foo-foo (f6'f8), n. 1. A negro name for dough 
made from plantains, the fruit being boiled 
and then pounded in a mortar. 2. A person 
not worth notice : a term of contempt. Sart- 
lett. [Colloq.] 
fool 1 (fSl), . and a. [< ME. fool, fole, fol, a 
fool, sometimes of a court fool, rarely a wanton, 
= Icel. fol = ODan. fool, fol, a fool, a madman, 
< OF. fol, a fool, rtinny, idiot, F. fol, fon, a 
madman, lunatic, madcap, fool, buffoon, jester, 
= Pr. fol, folk = OSp. fol = It. folle, a fool (also 
as adj.), < ML. follus, follis, adj., foolish, fat- 
uous; perhaps orig. in allusion to the puffed 
cheeks of a buffoon (see buffoon), < L. follis, a 
bellows, a wind-bag, pi. folles, puffed cheeks 
(Juvenal): see follicle.} I. n. 1. One who is 
deficient in intellect ; a weak-minded or idiotic 
person. 
We say also, Giue the foole his bable ; or what's a foole 
without a bable ? Cotgrave. 
I protest I take these wise men, that crow so at these 
set kind of fools, no better than the fools' zanies. 
Shak., T. N., i. 5. 
There was a Whitsuntide foole disguised like a foole, 
wearing a long coate. Coryat, Crudities, I. 11. 
Can they think me so broken, so debased, . . . 
Although their drudge, to be their fool or jester? 
Milton, S. A., 1. 1338. 
4. Figuratively, a tool, toy, sport, butt, or vic- 
tim : as, to be the fool of circumstances. 
Thought 's the slave of life, and life time's fool. 
Shak., 1 Hen. IV., v. 4. 
With morning wakes the will, and cries, 
"Thou shalt not be the/oo( of loss." 
Tennyson, In Memoriam, iv. 
5f. A wanton, bad, or wicked person All Fools' 
day, the first day of April, on which it has long been cus- 
tomary to "fool " or mock the unwary by sending them on 
some bootless errand, or by making them the subjects 
of some deceptive pleasantry or good-humored -practical 
joke. The origin of the custom is unknown. April fool, 
one who has been fooled or mocked on All Fools' day. 
Feast of fools. See feast. Fool saget [OF. fol sage, 
lit. a sage or witty fool], a professional jester. 
36 lordes and ladyes and legates of holicherche, 
That fedeth foles sages, flatereres and lyeres, 
And ban likynge to lythen hem to do sow to lawghe. 
Piers Plowman (B), xiii. 423. 
Fool's cap. (a) A head-dress formerly worn by licensed 
jesters. It consisted usually of a hood called a coxcomb- 
hood, the top rising into the form of a cock's head and 
neck, the whole surmounted by a bell or bells. Asses' ears 
were added at the sides. " Naturall Idiots and Fooles 
haue, and still doe accustome themselves to weare in their 
Cappes cocks feathers, or a hat with a necke and head of 
a cocke on the top and a bell thereon." Minxheu, 1617. 
Who builds his house on sands, 
Pricks his blind horse across the fallow lands, 
Or lets his wife abroad with pilgrims roam, 
Deserves a fool's-cap and long ears at home. 
Pope, Wife of Bath, 1. 350. 
(6) A conical paper cap which dunces at school are some- 
times compelled to wear by way of punishment. Fool's 
errand. See errand^. Fools' paradise, a state of de- 
ceptive happiness ; enjoyment based on false hopes or an- 
ticipations. 
If ye should lead her into A fool's paradise, . . . it were 
a gross . . . behaviour. Shak., R. and J., ii. 4. 
Hence the fool's paradise, the statesman's scheme, 
The air-built castle, and the golden dream. 
Pope, Dunciad, iii. 9. 
To beg a person for a foolt. See begi. To make a 
fool Of, to cause to appear ridiculous ; lead into useless 
or ridiculous acts by deception ; raise false expectations 
in ; disappoint. To play bob fOOlt, to mock. Dames. 
What, do they think to play bob fool with me ? 
Greene, Alphonsus, iv. 
To play the fool, (a) To act as a buffoon ; jest ; make 
sport. 
Let me play the fool: 
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. 
Shak., M. of V., 1. 1. 
(6) To act like-one void of understanding. 
I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly. 
1 Sam. xxvi. 21. 
They all played the fool at first, and would by no means 
be persuaded by either the tears or entreaties of Christian. 
Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, p. 229. 
To put the fool on or upont, to charge with folly ; ac- 
count as a fool. 
To bethought knowing, you must first put the fool upon 
all mankind. Dnjden. 
= Syn. 1 and 2. Simpleton, ninny, dolt, witling, blockhead, 
driveler. 3. Harlequin, clown, jester. See zany. 
