Source and Axis

noun

• The place where something begins, where it springs into being.
  • usage: "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"
  • synonyms: beginning, origin, root, rootage
• A document (or organization) from which information is obtained.
  • usage: "the reporter had two sources for the story"
• Anything that provides inspiration for later work.
  • synonyms: seed, germ
• A facility where something is available.
• A person who supplies information.
  • synonyms: informant
• Someone who originates or causes or initiates something.
  • usage: "he was the generator of several complaints"
  • synonyms: generator, author
• Technology) a process by which energy or a substance enters a system. (
  • usage: "a heat source"; "a source of carbon dioxide"
• Anything (a person or animal or plant or substance) in which an infectious agent normally lives and multiplies.
  • usage: "an infectious agent depends on a reservoir for its survival"
  • synonyms: reservoir
• A publication (or a passage from a publication) that is referred to.
  • usage: "he carried an armful of references back to his desk"; "he spent hours looking for the source of that quotation"
  • synonyms: reference

verb

• Get (a product) from another country or business.
  • usage: "She sourced a supply of carpet"; "They are sourcing from smaller companies"
• Specify the origin of.
  • usage: "The writer carefully sourced her report"

• (n.) The act of rising; a rise; an ascent.
• (n.) The rising from the ground or beginning, of a stream of water or the like; a spring; a fountain.
• (n.) That from which anything comes forth, regarded as its cause or origin; the person from whom anything originates; first cause.

(DoD) A person, thing, or activity from which information is obtained.
(DoD) In clandestine activities, a person (agent), normally a foreign national, in the employ of an intelligence activity for intelligence purposes.
(DoD) In interrogation activities, any person who furnishes information, either with or without the knowledge that the information is being used for intelligence purposes. In this context, a controlled source is in the employment or under the control of the intelligence activity and knows that the information is to be used for intelligence purposes. An uncontrolled source is a voluntary contributor of information and may or may not know that the information is to be used for intelligence purposes. See also agent; collection agency.

noun

• A straight line through a body or figure that satisfies certain conditions.
• The main stem or central part about which plant organs or plant parts such as branches are arranged.
• In World War II the alliance of Germany and Italy in 1936 which later included Japan and other nations.
  • usage: "the Axis opposed the Allies in World War II"
• A group of countries in special alliance.
  • synonyms: bloc
• The 2nd cervical vertebra; serves as a pivot for turning the head.
  • synonyms: axis vertebra
• The center around which something rotates.
  • synonyms: axis of rotation

• (n.) Also used of the body only of the vertebra, which is prolonged anteriorly within the foramen of the first vertebra or atlas, so as to form the odontoid process or peg which serves as a pivot for the atlas and head to turn upon.
• (n.) A straight line with respect to which the different parts of a magnitude are symmetrically arranged; as, the axis of a cylinder, i. e., the axis of a cone, that is, the straight line joining the vertex and the center of the base; the axis of a circle, any straight line passing through the center.
• (n.) The primary or secondary central line of any design.
• (n.) A straight line, real or imaginary, passing through a body, on which it revolves or may be supposed to revolve; a line passing through a body or system around which the parts are symmetrically arranged.
• (n.) The stem; the central part or longitudinal support, on which organs or parts are arranged; the central line of any body.
• (n.) The spotted deer (Cervus axis or Axis maculata) of India, where it is called hog deer and parrah (Moorish name).
• (n.) The second vertebra of the neck or vertebra dentata.
• (n.) One of several imaginary lines, assumed in describing the position of the planes by which a crystal is bounded.