source Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the place where something begins, where it springs into being
    origin; root; beginning; rootage.
    • 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
  2. noun a document (or organization) from which information is obtained
    • the reporter had two sources for the story
  3. noun anything that provides inspiration for later work
    seed; germ.
  4. noun a facility where something is available
  5. noun a person who supplies information
    informant.
  6. noun someone who originates or causes or initiates something
    generator; author.
    • he was the generator of several complaints
  7. noun (technology) a process by which energy or a substance enters a system
    • a heat source
    • a source of carbon dioxide
  8. noun anything (a person or animal or plant or substance) in which an infectious agent normally lives and multiplies
    reservoir.
    • an infectious agent depends on a reservoir for its survival
  9. noun a publication (or a passage from a publication) that is referred to
    reference.
    • he carried an armful of references back to his desk
    • he spent hours looking for the source of that quotation
  10. verb get (a product) from another country or business
    • She sourced a supply of carpet
    • They are sourcing from smaller companies
  11. verb specify the origin of
    • The writer carefully sourced her report

WordNet

Source noun
Etymology
OE. sours, OF. sourse, surse, sorse, F. source, fr. OF. sors, p.p. of OF. sordre, surdre, sourdre, to spring forth or up, F. sourdre, fr. L. surgere to lift or raise up, to spring up. See Surge, and cf. Souse to plunge or swoop as a bird upon its prey.
Definitions
  1. The act of rising; a rise; an ascent. Obs.
    Therefore right as an hawk upon a sours Up springeth into the air, right so prayers . . . Maken their sours to Goddes ears two. Chaucer.
  2. The rising from the ground, or beginning, of a stream of water or the like; a spring; a fountain.
    Where as the Poo out of a welle small Taketh his firste springing and his sours. Chaucer.
    Kings that rule Behind the hidden sources of the Nile. Addison.
  3. That from which anything comes forth, regarded as its cause or origin; the person from whom anything originates; first cause.
    This source of ideas every man has wholly in himself. Locke.
    The source of Newton's light, of Bacon's sense. Pope.
    Syn. -- See Origin.

Webster 1913