Definition: source

Source: WordNet (r) 1.7

source
     n 1: 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, rootage]
     2: a person who supplies information [syn: informant]
     3: 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]
     4: a document (or organization) from which information is
        obtained; "the reporter had two sources for the story"
     5: a facility where something is available
     6: anything that provides inspiration for later work [syn: seed,
         germ]
     7: someone who originates or causes or initiates something; "he
        was the generator of several complaints" [syn: generator,
         author]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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.

   Syn: See Origin.

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (2003-OCT-10)

source

   source code

Source: Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

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".