source

A Unix command in C shell, where:

source n.

[very common] In reference to software, `source' is invariably shorthand for `source code', the preferred human-readable and human-modifiable form of the program. This is as opposed to object code, the derived binary executable form of a program. This shorthand readily takes derivative forms; one may speak of "the sources of a system" or of "having source".

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

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.

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.

Syn. -- See Origin.

© Webster 1913.