Origin

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Origin \Or"i*gin\, n. [F. origine, L. origo, -iginis, fr. oriri
     to rise, become visible; akin to Gr. 'orny`nai to stir up,
     rouse, Skr. [.r], and perh. to E. run.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. The first existence or beginning of anything; the birth.
        [1913 Webster]


  
              This mixed system of opinion and sentiment had its
              origin in the ancient chivalry.       --Burke.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. That from which anything primarily proceeds; the fountain;
        the spring; the cause; the occasion.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Anat.) The point of attachment or end of a muscle which
        is fixed during contraction; -- in contradistinction to
        {insertion}.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Origin of coordinate axes} (Math.), the point where the axes
        intersect. See Note under {Ordinate}.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Commencement; rise; source; spring; fountain;
          derivation; cause; root; foundation.
  
     Usage: {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.
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  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.
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  Famous Greece,
                  That source of art and cultivated thought
                  Which they to Rome, and Romans hither, brought.
                                                    --Waller.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  origin
       n 1: the place where something begins, where it springs into
            being; "the Italian beginning of the Renaissance";
            "Jupiter was the origin of the radiation"; "Pittsburgh
            is the source of the Ohio River"; "communism's Russian
            root" [syn: {beginning}, {root}, {rootage}, {source}]
       2: properties attributable to your ancestry; "he comes from
          good origins" [syn: {descent}, {extraction}]
       3: an event that is a beginning; a first part or stage of
          subsequent events [syn: {origination}, {inception}]
       4: the point of intersection of coordinate axes; where the
          values of the coordinates are all zero
       5: the descendants of one individual; "his entire lineage has
          been warriors" [syn: {lineage}, {line}, {line of descent},
           {descent}, {bloodline}, {blood line}, {blood}, {pedigree},
           {ancestry}, {parentage}, {stemma}, {stock}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  98 Moby Thesaurus words for "origin":
     A, alpha, ancestry, babyhood, base, basis, beginning, beginnings,
     birth, birthplace, blast-off, blood, childhood, commencement,
     comparative linguistics, conception, cradle, creation,
     cutting edge, dawn, dawning, derivation, descent, edge, eponymy,
     establishment, etymology, extraction, flying start, folk etymology,
     foundation, fount, fountain, fresh start, freshman year, genealogy,
     genesis, grass roots, head, heritage, historical linguistics,
     inauguration, inception, inchoation, incipience, incipiency,
     incunabula, infancy, institution, jump-off, kick-off, launch,
     launching, leading edge, lineage, maternity, nascence, nascency,
     nativity, new departure, oncoming, onset, opening, original,
     origination, origins, outbreak, outset, parentage, parturition,
     paternity, pedigree, pregnancy, provenance, provenience, radical,
     radix, rise, root, running start, semantic history, send-off,
     setting in motion, setting-up, source, square one, start,
     start-off, starting point, stem, stock, take-off, taproot, well,
     wellspring, whence, word history, youth