Sourse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A dialect or archaic form meaning a spring or fountain of water ; a variant spelling for the origin or starting point of something ; an old word for a source of supply or resource
2. An obsolete or regional term indicating a water well or stream ; also used as a nonstandard version representing the origin of an idea or item ; historically, a word for a supply point or source
3. A lesser-known historical word for a place where water bubbles up ; alternately, an early or rare spelling for a point of beginning ; and once signifying any primary source or provider

Etymology: "Sourse" is an older spelling of "source," and the word's history begins with the idea of rising. It comes from the Old French "sourse," the feminine past participle of "sourdre," meaning "to rise up" or "spring forth." A spring of water is, in that sense, the place where water rises out of the ground. Old French inherited "sourdre" from the Latin "surgere," "to rise, get up." English gained the sense through French, and the same Latin root gives us "surge," "insurgent," and "resurrection." Those words share the notion of something rising, though the modern "source" has moved well beyond water to mean any origin.