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origin

 

  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  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.] 
  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  co["o]rdinate  axes}  (Math.),  the  point  where  the 
  axes  intersect.  See  Note  under  {Ordinate}. 
 
  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. 
 
  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. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [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},  {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},  {genesis},  {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},  {stock}]




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