origin

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒɹ.ɪ.dʒɪn/, /ˈɒɹ.ə.dʒən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔɹ.ɪ.dʒɪn/, /ˈɔɹ.dʒɪn/
• (NYC) IPA^(key): /ˈɑɹ.ɪ.dʒɪn/

• Audio (US)

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origin (plural origins)

1. The beginning of something.
2. The source of a river, information, goods, etc.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture I:

     It is clear that the origin of the truth would be an admirable criterion of this sort, if only the various origins could be discriminated from one another from this point of view, and the history of dogmatic opinion shows that origin has always been a favorite test. Origin in immediate intuition; origin in pontifical authority; origin in supernatural revelation, as by vision, hearing, or unaccountable impression; origin in direct possession by a higher spirit, expressing itself in prophecy and warning; origin in automatic utterance generally,—these origins have been stock warrants for the truth of one opinion after another which we find represented in religious history.

   • 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.

   Synonym: source

3. (mathematics) The point at which the axes of a coordinate system intersect.

   Synonym: zero vector

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.

• (source): destination
• (anatomy): insertion

• orient

• provenance

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