Source and Element

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

• An abstract part of something.
  • usage: "jealousy was a component of his character"; "two constituents of a musical composition are melody and harmony"; "the grammatical elements of a sentence"; "a key factor in her success"; "humor: an effective ingredient of a speech"
  • synonyms: component, constituent, factor, ingredient
• An artifact that is one of the individual parts of which a composite entity is made up; especially a part that can be separated from or attached to a system.
  • usage: "spare components for cars"; "a component or constituent element of a system"
  • synonyms: component, constituent
• Any of the more than 100 known substances (of which 92 occur naturally) that cannot be separated into simpler substances and that singly or in combination constitute all matter.
  • synonyms: chemical element
• The most favorable environment for a plant or animal.
  • usage: "water is the element of fishes"
• One of four substances thought in ancient and medieval cosmology to constitute the physical universe.
  • usage: "the alchemists believed that there were four elements"
• The situation in which you are happiest and most effective.
  • usage: "in your element"
• A straight line that generates a cylinder or cone. .

• (n.) One of the smallest natural divisions of the organism, as a blood corpuscle, a muscular fiber.
• (n.) One of the simple substances, as supposed by the ancient philosophers; one of the imaginary principles of matter.
• (n.) Sometimes a curve or surface or volume is considered as described by a moving point or curve or surface, the latter being at any instant called an element of the former.
• (n.) The simplest or fundamental principles of any system in philosophy, science or art; rudiments; as, the elements of geometry or of music.
• (n.) An infinitesimal part of anything of the same nature as the entire magnitude considered; as, in a solid an element may be the infinitesimal portion between any two planes that are separated an indefinitely small distance. In the calculus, element is sometimes used as synonymous with differential.
• (n.) One of the terms in an algebraic expression.
• (n.) One of the necessary data or values upon which a system of calculations depends or general conclusions are based; as, the elements of a planet's orbit.
• (n.) One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based.
• (v.t.) To constitute; to make up with elements.
• (n.) The bread and wine used in the eucharist or Lord's supper.
• (n.) The elements of the alchemists were salt, sulphur, and mercury.
• (n.) The whole material composing the world.
• (n.) One of the simplest essential parts, more commonly called cells, of which animal and vegetable organisms or their tissues and organs, are composed.
• (n.) The four elements were, air, earth, water, and fire.
• (n.) One of the ultimate parts which are variously combined in anything; as, letters are the elements of written language; hence, also, a simple portion of that which is complex, as a shaft, lever, wheel or any simple part in a machine; one of the essential ingredients of any mixture; a constituent part; as, quartz, feldspar, and mica are the elements of granite.
• (n.) One out of several parts combined in a system of aggregation, when each is of the nature of the whole; as, a single cell is an element of the honeycomb.
• (n.) Any outline or sketch, regarded as containing the fundamental ideas or features of the thing in question; as, the elements of a plan.
• (v.t.) To compound of elements or first principles.
• (n.) the conditions and movements of the air.
• (n.) One of the ultimate, undecomposable constituents of any kind of matter. Specifically: (Chem.) A substance which cannot be decomposed into different kinds of matter by any means at present employed; as, the elements of water are oxygen and hydrogen.

(DoD) An organization formed around a specific function within a designated directorate of a joint force commander's headquarters. The subordinate components of an element usually are functional cells.