source

English

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source

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English sours, from Old French sorse (“rise, beginning, spring, source”), from sors, past participle of sordre, sourdre, from Latin surgō (“to rise”), which is composed of sub- (“up from below”) +‎ regō (“lead, rule”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti (“to straighten; right”), from the root *h₃reǵ-. See surge.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɔːs/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɔɹs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /so(ː)ɹs/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /soəs/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /suːɹs/, /sʊɹs/
• Homophone: sauce (non-rhotic accents with the horse–hoarse merger)
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)s

Noun

source (plural sources)

1. The person, place, or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.) comes or is acquired.

   The accused refused to reveal the source of the illegal drugs she was selling.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎:

     More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.

   • 2013 July 6, “The rise of smart beta”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8843, page 68:

     Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.

2. Spring; fountainhead; wellhead; any collection of water on or under the surface of the ground in which a stream originates.

   The main sources of the Euphrates River are the Karasu and Murat Rivers.

   • 2013 August 16, John Vidal, “Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 8:

     Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.

3. A reporter's informant.
4. (computing) Source code.
5. (electronics) The name of one terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).
6. (graph theory) A node in a directed graph whose edges all go out from it; one with no entering edges.
7. (mathematics, category theory) The domain of a function; the object which a morphism points from.

   Coordinate term: target

Synonyms

• wellspring

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "graph theory"): sink

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• resource

Translations

See also

• target

Verb

source (third-person singular simple present sources, present participle sourcing, simple past and past participle sourced)

1. To obtain or procure: used especially of a business resource.
   • 2023 July 12, Pip Dunn, “Class 99s: "ultimate Electro-Diesel"”, in RAIL, number 987, page 52:

     But the point when it would have to look at alternative new-build vehicles was always looming large, and there would inevitably be a finite number of Class 66s it could source from elsewhere, and a limit to other locomotives it could re-power.

2. (transitive) To find information about (a quotation)'s source (from which it comes): to find a citation for.

Derived terms

• (mainly US): sourcing
• (mainly US): insourcing
• (mainly US): outsourcing

Translations

References

Further reading

• “source”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “source”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• 'course, Couser, Crouse, Crusoe, cerous, coures, course, crouse

Chinese

Alternative forms

• 梳屎, 梳士

Etymology

From English source.

Pronunciation

Noun

source (Hong Kong Cantonese)

1. source (person, place, thing)
2. (university slang) source material used for copying or plagiarism

References

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French sorse (“rise, beginning, spring, source”), from sors, past participle of sordre, sourdre, from Latin surgere (“to rise”). See surge.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /suʁs/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

source f (plural sources)

1. source, spring (of water)
2. source, origin (of anything)

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Romanian: sursă

Verb

source

1. inflection of sourcer:
   1. first-person singular/third-person singular present indicative/present subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “source”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• coeurs, cœurs
• coures
• course, coursé
• écrous

Middle English

Noun

source

1. Alternative form of sours