/awr"i jin, or"-/ , n.
1. something from which anything arises or is derived; source; fountainhead: to follow a stream to its origin.
2. rise or derivation from a particular source: the origin of a word.
3. the first stage of existence; beginning: the origin of Quakerism in America.
4. ancestry; parentage; extraction: to be of Scottish origin.
5. Anat.
a. the point of derivation.
b. the more fixed portion of a muscle.
6. Math.
a. the point in a Cartesian coordinate system where the axes intersect.
b. Also called pole . the point from which rays designating specific angles originate in a polar coordinate system with no axes.
[ 1350-1400; ME origin- (s. of origo ) beginning, source, lineage, deriv. of oriri to rise; cf. ORIENT ]
Syn. 1. root, foundation. 4. birth, lineage, descent.
Ant. 1. destination, end.