provenance

Definition

Place or source of origin.

Etymology

Borrowed from French provenance (“origin”), from Middle French provenant, present participle of provenir (“come forth, arise”), from Latin provenio (“to come forth”).

Example Sentences

• "Many supermarkets display the provenance of their food products."
• "Within this melee of intersections between English and Cantonese, the students, being themselves bilingually fluent, were able to navigate with perfect ease in communicative contexts where the provenance of a certain term or expression matters little."
• "This spear is of Viking provenance."