outsource

Etymology

It is formed from English out- + source,^[2][3] the second part being the verb meaning to obtain from a particular source, recorded from 1972.^[3][2] That verb is from the noun (mid-14th century), which is from Old French sourse (“a rising, beginning, fountainhead”), from the past participle of sourdre (“to rise, spring up”), from Latin surgō (“to rise”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To obtain goods or services, or to have work done, under contract with an outside supplier: 1979, in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts.^[2][4] Etymonline finds it by 1981, implied in outsourcing,^[3] and Dictionary.com dates the verb to 1975–80.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The 1989 edition of the OED defined the verb mainly as obtaining goods, especially component parts, from a source outside a company or area,^[6] the sense Collins still gives for a manufacturer buying in components rather than making them.^[7] The OED's revision of 2004 widened it to goods and services in general and to contracting work out, and noted an intransitive use.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Etymonline note that it is used especially of work given to foreign or nonunion workers, and of jobs going overseas,^[4][3] and the American Heritage Dictionary adds that the aim is to cut costs.^[8] The noun sourcing, for obtaining goods or parts from a particular source, is recorded by 1960.^[3]

Timeline

• 1979 – to obtain goods or services by contract from an outside source; to contract work out.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it by 1981.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To obtain goods or services from an outside or foreign supplier rather than produce them within the organization: The firm outsourced its payroll to an agency abroad.^[4][2][3]
2. To give work to another company under contract; to subcontract or farm out work, often to cut costs.^[7][8][2]
3. Of a manufacturer, to buy in components rather than make them.^[7][6]

Word family

• outsourcing

Related words

• source
• resource
• surge

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin