ad fontes in Latin

IPA: [ˈad ˈfɔn.teːs] [Classical-Latin], [ˈad ˈfɔn.tes] (note: modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) Forms: ad fontēs [canonical] [Show additional information ▼] [Hide additional information ▲]

Etymology: Ad (“to”) + fontēs, accusative plural form of fōns (“fountain”, “spring”, “source”) = literally, “to the springs or sources”; probably drawn from Psalm XLII, verse 1 of the Latin Vulgate by Spanish humanists. Head templates: {{head|la|phrase|head=ad fontēs}} ad fontēs

[Show JSON for postprocessed kaikki.org data shown on this page ▼] [Hide JSON for postprocessed kaikki.org data shown on this page ▲]

{
  "etymology_text": "Ad (“to”) + fontēs, accusative plural form of fōns (“fountain”, “spring”, “source”) = literally, “to the springs or sources”; probably drawn from Psalm XLII, verse 1 of the Latin Vulgate by Spanish humanists.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ad fontēs",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "la",
        "2": "phrase",
        "head": "ad fontēs"
      },
      "expansion": "ad fontēs",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Latin",
  "lang_code": "la",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Latin entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Go to the sources: An expression emphasizing the importance of conducting fundamental research and of consulting primary sources."
      ],
      "id": "en-ad_fontes-la-phrase-x9CFVBNS",
      "links": [
        [
          "sources",
          "sources"
        ],
        [
          "fundamental",
          "fundamental"
        ],
        [
          "research",
          "research"
        ],
        [
          "primary",
          "primary"
        ],
        [
          "source",
          "source"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Go to the sources: An expression emphasizing the importance of conducting fundamental research and of consulting primary sources."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "english": "from the beginning",
          "translation": "from the beginning",
          "word": "ab initio"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[ˈad ˈfɔn.teːs]",
      "tags": [
        "Classical-Latin"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[ˈad ˈfɔn.tes]",
      "note": "modern Italianate Ecclesiastical"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ad fontes"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "etymology_text": "Ad (“to”) + fontēs, accusative plural form of fōns (“fountain”, “spring”, “source”) = literally, “to the springs or sources”; probably drawn from Psalm XLII, verse 1 of the Latin Vulgate by Spanish humanists.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ad fontēs",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "la",
        "2": "phrase",
        "head": "ad fontēs"
      },
      "expansion": "ad fontēs",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Latin",
  "lang_code": "la",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "english": "from the beginning",
      "translation": "from the beginning",
      "word": "ab initio"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Latin entries with incorrect language header",
        "Latin idioms",
        "Latin lemmas",
        "Latin multiword terms",
        "Latin phrases",
        "Latin terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Go to the sources: An expression emphasizing the importance of conducting fundamental research and of consulting primary sources."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sources",
          "sources"
        ],
        [
          "fundamental",
          "fundamental"
        ],
        [
          "research",
          "research"
        ],
        [
          "primary",
          "primary"
        ],
        [
          "source",
          "source"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Go to the sources: An expression emphasizing the importance of conducting fundamental research and of consulting primary sources."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[ˈad ˈfɔn.teːs]",
      "tags": [
        "Classical-Latin"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[ˈad ˈfɔn.tes]",
      "note": "modern Italianate Ecclesiastical"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ad fontes"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Latin dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.

"ad fontes" meaning in Latin

Phrase