origin

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The point at which something comes into existence or from which it derives or is derived.
2. n. Ancestry: "We cannot escape our origins, however hard we try” ( James Baldwin).
3. n. The fact of originating; rise or derivation: The rumor had its origin in an impulsive remark.
4. n. Anatomy The point of attachment of a muscle that remains relatively fixed during contraction.
5. n. Mathematics The point of intersection of coordinate axes, as in the Cartesian coordinate system.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Beginning of existence; rise or first manifestation; first stage or indication of being or existence.
2. n. That from which anything derives its being or nature; source of being or existence; cause or occasion; fountain; source: as, the origins of a nation.
3. n. Hence, parentage; ancestry; pedigree; extraction; birth.
4. n. In mathematics, the fixed starting-point from which measurement or motion starts; specifically, in analytical geometry, the point from which the coördinates are measured.
5. n. In anatomy: The proximal, larger, or more fixed one of the two ends or attachments of a muscle; the part or place whence a muscle usually acts: opposed to insertion. The root or beginning of a nerve in the brain or spinal cord. Cranial nerves have two origins — the apparent or superficial origin, at the point where they leave the brain, and the real or deep origin, the groups of ganglion-cells to which their roots can be traced.
6. To give rise to; originate; initiate.
7. To arise; originate.

Wiktionary

1. n. The beginning of something.
2. n. The source of a river, information, goods, etc.
3. n. mathematics The point at which the axes of a coordinate system intersect
4. n. anatomy The proximal end of attachment of a muscle to a bone that will not be moved by the action of that muscle.
5. n. cartography an arbitrary point on the earth's surface, chosen as the zero for a system of coordinates.
6. n. in the plural ancestry

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The first existence or beginning of anything; the birth.
2. n. That from which anything primarily proceeds; the fountain; the spring; the cause; the occasion.
3. n. (Anat.) The point of attachment or end of a muscle which is fixed during contraction; -- in contradistinction to insertion.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the place where something begins, where it springs into being
2. n. the point of intersection of coordinate axes; where the values of the coordinates are all zero
3. n. the descendants of one individual
4. n. an event that is a beginning; a first part or stage of subsequent events
5. n. properties attributable to your ancestry
6. n. the source of something's existence or from which it derives or is derived