Source and Background

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 person's social heritage: previous experience or training.
  • usage: "he is a lawyer with a sports background"
• The part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground.
  • usage: "he posed her against a background of rolling hills"
  • synonyms: ground
• Information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem.
  • usage: "the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident"
  • synonyms: background knowledge
• Extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured.
  • usage: "they got a bad connection and could hardly hear one another over the background signals"
  • synonyms: background signal
• Relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation.
  • usage: "when the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background"
• The state of the environment in which a situation exists.
  • usage: "you can't do that in a university setting"
  • synonyms: setting, scope
• Computer science. ( the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear)
  • synonyms: desktop, screen background
• Scenery hung at back of stage.
  • synonyms: backdrop, backcloth

verb

• Understate the importance or quality of.
  • usage: "he played down his royal ancestry"
  • synonyms: play down, downplay

• (n.) Ground in the rear or behind or in the distance, as opposed to the foreground or the ground in front.
• (n.) A place in obscurity or retirement or out of sight.
• (n.) The space which is behind and subordinate to a portrait or group of figures.
• (n.) Anything behind, serving as a foil; as, the statue had a background of red hangings.