Source \source\, n. [OE. sours, OF. sourse, surse, sorse, F source, fr. OF. sors, p. p. of OF. sordre, surdre, sourdre, to spring forth or up, F. sourdre, fr. L. surgere to lift or raise up, to spring up. See surge, and cf. souse to plunge or swoop as a bird upon its prey.]

1. The act of rising; a rise; an ascent. [Obs.]

   Therefore right as an hawk upon a sours Up springeth into the air, right so prayers . . . Maken their sours to Goddes ears two. --Chaucer

2. The rising from the ground, or beginning, of a stream of water or the like; a spring; a fountain

   Where as the Poo out of a welle small Taketh his firste springing and his sours. --Chaucer

   Kings that rule Behind the hidden sources of the Nile. --Addison

3. That from which anything comes forth, regarded as its cause or origin; the person from whom anything originates; first cause

   This source of ideas every man has wholly in himself. --Locke

   The source of Newton's light, of Bacon's sense --Pope

4. The place where something begins, where it springs into being; "the Italian beginning of the Renaissance"; "Jupiter was the origin of the radiation"; "Pittsburgh is the source of the Ohio River"; "communism's Russian root" [syn: beginning, origin, root]
5. A document (or organization) from which information is obtained; "the reporter had two sources for the story"
6. Anything that provides inspiration for later work [syn: seed, germ]
7. A facility where something is available [syn: channel]
8. A person who supplies information [syn: informant]
9. Someone who originates or causes or initiates something; "he was the generator of several complaints" [syn: generator, author]
10. A publication (or a passage from a publication) that is referred to; "he carried an armful of references back to his desk"; "he spent hours looking for the source of that quotation" [syn: reference]
11. (Comp.) source code, computer language instructions in the form of text