Origin

Pronunciation

Origin

From Middle English origine, from Latin origo ("beginning, source, birth, origin"), from oriri ("to rise"); see orient.

Full definition of origin

Noun

1. The beginning of something.
2. The source of a river, information, goods, etc.
• 2013-06-14, Sam Leith, Where the profound meets the profane, 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 the earth's surface, chosen as the zero for a system of coordinates.
6. (in the plural) Ancestry.

Synonyms

• (source) source
• (mathematics) zero vector

Antonyms

• (anatomy) insertion

Related terms

• orient
• original
• originate
• originator
• origination