origin, n. (a.)
(ˈɒrɪdʒɪn)
Also 5 -yne, 7–8 -ine.
[app. a. F. origine, ad. L. orīgin-em rise, beginning, source, f. orī-rī to arise.
F. origine took the place of the popular form orine; although cited by Hatz.-Darm. only from 1512, it appears to be the immediate source of the Eng. word. The instance from Alexander in 1 b is, from its date, suspicious.]
1. The act or fact of arising or springing from something; derivation, rise; beginning of existence in reference to its source or cause. certificate of origin, a custom-house document certifying the place of origin of a commodity imported.
| [1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 223 Þe book of þe comynge forþ of þe soule; [1432–50 the begynnynge of the saule = libellum de origine animæ].] 1563 Homilies ii. Peril of Idolatry ii. (1859) 183 Lactantius..in his book of the Origin of Error. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 185 Yet do I beleeue The Origin and Commencement of this greefe Sprung from neglected loue. 1663 Gerbier Counsel E viij, The Antiquity and Origine of Herauldry. 1741 T. Robinson Gavelkind ii. 9 The better ascertaining the Origin of Gavelkind. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) II. 390 Man alone..bears upon his countenance the impress of a celestial origin. 1850 M{supc}Cosh Div. Govt. iii. ii. (1874) 377 The origin of evil, like every other beginning, shrouds itself in darkness. 1886 Pall Mall G. 4 Sept. 2/2 Under the existing Spanish Customs regulations, certificates of origin are required. |
b. In reference to a person: The fact of springing from some particular ancestor or race; descent, extraction, parentage, ancestry.
| [a 1400–50 Alexander 92 Þe Arrabiens and all þa of þat origyne.] 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. ii. 32 That nature, which contemns its origin, Cannot be border'd certain in itself. 1695 Ld. Preston Boeth. iii. 118 And doth his noble Origine forget. 1738 Glover Leonidas i. 17 Their kings, who boast an origin divine. 1838 Lytton Leila i. iii, Why cannot I learn thine origin, thy rank, thy parents? Mod. A distinguished man of humble origin. |
2. That from which anything arises, springs, or is derived; source.
| 1604 T. Wright Passions v. §2. 163 What are those dolefull tunes..but offsprings of pensiue furies, and origens of more vehement melancholie fits? 1696 Whiston Th. Earth ii. (1722) 83 Mountains are the principal Source and Origin of Springs and Fountains. 1824 R. Hall Wks. (1832) VI. 354 To be alienated from the Great Origin of being..must be a calamity. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 18 We hoped..to be able to examine the glacier to its origin. 1870 Lowell My Study Wind. 242 It is to the North of France..that we are to look for the true origins of our modern literature. |
b. Anat. The place or point at or from which a muscle, nerve, etc. arises; the proximal or more fixed end or attachment of a muscle; the root of a nerve in the brain or spinal cord.
| 1691 Ray Creation ii. (1692) 119 The very strong Ligaments..which in drawing it back towards its Origine, do fold it up. 1831 R. Knox Cloquet's Anat. 275 Between these two origins [of the Abductor Oculi] pass the third pair of nerves, sixth pair, and nasal branch of the ophthalmic. 1840 E. Wilson Anat. Vade M. (1851) 238 A good view of the whole extent of origin of the flexor sublimis digitorum. |
c. Math. A fixed point from which measurement or motion commences; spec. the point of intersection of the axes in Cartesian co-ordinates, or the pole in polar co-ordinates. [= F. origine.]
| 1723 E. Stone Con. Sect. [tr. Marquis de l'Hospital's Sections Coniques] 5 The Parabola infinitely extends itself more and more on each Side the Axis AP, beginning from the Origin. 1873 B. Williamson Diff. Calc. xii. §180 If on any radius vector.., drawn from a fixed origin.., a point..be taken, such that [etc.]. Ibid. §182 If the focus [of a conic] be the origin of inversion, the inverse is a curve called the Lima{cced}on of Pascal. Ibid. xiv. §202 If the absolute term be wanting in the equation of a curve, it passes through the origin. |
† B. attrib. or adj. = original A. 1. Obs. rare.
| 1632 Sanderson Twelve Serm. 217 The origine story it selfe..is written at full by Moses in Numb. 25. |
Hence † ˈorigin v. trans. Obs. = originate v. 1.
| a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Cardigan iv. (1662) 28 We must remember this Proverb was origined whilest England and Wales were at deadly Feude. |