Hypertext Webster Gateway: "source"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Source \Source\, n. [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.]
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}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
source
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}, {origin}, {root}, {rootage}]
2: a person who supplies information [syn: {informant}]
3: a publication (or a passage from a publication) that is
referred to; "he carried an armful of references back to
his desk"; "he spent hours looking for the source of that
quotation" [syn: {reference}]
4: a document (or organization) from which information is
obtained; "the reporter had two sources for the story"
5: a facility where something is available
6: anything that provides inspiration for later work [syn: {seed},
{germ}]
7: someone who originates or causes or initiates something; "he
was the generator of several complaints" [syn: {generator},
{author}]
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