Etymologically
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This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:45. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /sɔːs/, US /sɔːrs/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sours, borrowed from Old French sourse (“a rising, beginning, spring”),[2][3] a feminine noun use of the past participle of sourdre (“to rise, spring up”),[2][4][5] from Latin surgere (“to rise”),[2][3] the source of surge.[6][5] Etymonline analyses surgere as a contraction of surrigere, from sub “up from below” and regere (“to keep straight, guide”).[2] It is related to resource.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A support or base: 1346,[3][7] a sense now obsolete.[7][8]

Semantic evolution

In hawking, the rising of a bird on the wing is from about 1384.[7][9] A main cause or origin is from about 1374[7] or about 1385, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde,[3] and the fountainhead of a river from about 1386[7] or the late 14th century.[2] The spelling source appears before 1393, in Gower.[3] A person or written work supplying information is by 1777.[2] The verb “to obtain from a particular source” is from 1972,[2][7] with sourcing in commercial use by 1960.[2] Earlier verbs source, “to rise, spring”, are recorded from 1513 to the 17th century.[7]

Timeline

  • 1346 – a support.[3][7]
  • c. 1374 – a prime cause.[7]
  • c. 1384 – the rising of a hawk.[7]
  • c. 1386 – the fountainhead of a river.[7]
  • 1777 – a source of information.[2]
  • 1941 – verb, sourced in, based in.[7]
  • 1972 – verb, to obtain from a source.[2][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The point at which something begins or from which it is obtained; an origin.
  2. The spring or starting point of a river or stream.
  3. A person or thing that causes or creates something.
  4. A person or document that supplies information.

Verb

  1. To obtain parts or materials from a particular supplier or place.
  2. To give the origin of; to document.

Word family

  • sourceless
  • sourceful
  • sourcefulness
  • sourcebook
  • sourcing
  • outsourcing
  • outsource
  • resource
  • surge
  • insurgent
  • resurrection

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press