Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Origin

Or′i-gin

,
Noun.
[F.
origine
, L.
origo
,
-iginis
, fr.
oriri
to rise, become visible; akin to Gr.
ὀρνύναι
to stir up, rouse, Skr.
ṛ
, and perh. to E.
run
.]
1.
The first existence or beginning of anything; the birth.
This mixed system of opinion and sentiment had its
origin
in the ancient chivalry.
Burke.
2.
That from which anything primarily proceeds; the fountain; the spring; the cause; the occasion.
3.
(Anat.)
The point of attachment or end of a muscle which is fixed during contraction; – in contradistinction to
insertion
.
Origin of coordinate axes
(Math.)
,
the point where the axes intersect. See Note under
Ordinate
.
Syn. – Commencement; rise; source; spring; fountain; derivation; cause; root; foundation.
–
Origin
,
Source
. Origin denotes the rise or commencement of a thing; source presents itself under the image of a fountain flowing forth in a continuous stream of influences. The origin of moral evil has been much disputed, but no one can doubt that it is the source of most of the calamities of our race.
I think he would have set out just as he did, with the
origin
of ideas – the proper starting point of a grammarian, who is to treat of their signs.
Tooke.
Famous Greece,
That
source
of art and cultivated thought
Which they to Rome, and Romans hither, brought.
Waller.

Webster 1828 Edition

Origin

OR'IGIN

,
Noun.
[L. origo.]
1.
The first existence or beginning of any thing; as the origin of Rome. In history it is necessary, if practicable, to trace all events to their origin.
2.
Fountain; source; cause; that from which any thing primarily proceeds; that which gives existence or beginning. The apostasy is believed to have been the origin of moral evil. The origin of many of our customs is lost in antiquity. Nations, like individuals, are ambitious to trace their descent from an honorable origin.

Definition 2024

origin

origin

English

Noun

origin ‎(plural origins)

  1. The beginning of something.
  2. The source of a river, information, goods, etc.
    • 2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37:
      Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.
  3. (mathematics) The point at which the axes of a coordinate system intersect.
  4. (anatomy) The proximal end of attachment of a muscle to a bone that will not be moved by the action of that muscle.
  5. (cartography) An arbitrary point on Earth's surface, chosen as the zero for a system of coordinates.
  6. (in the plural) Ancestry.

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Translations

External links

  • origin in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • origin in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Etymology

From Middle English origine, origyne, from Old French origine, orine, ourine, from Latin origo ‎(“beginning, source, birth, origin”), from oriri ‎(“to rise”); see orient.

Pronunciation

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