c1384 G. Chaucer Hous of Fame 544 Me fleynge in a swappe he hente, And with hys sours a-yene vp went.

c1386 G. Chaucer Summoner's Tale 230 Right as an hauk upon a sours Upspringeth into thaer, right so prayeres..Maken her sours to Goddis eeres tuo.

1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid v. v. 21 [Ganymede] Quham, with a surs, swiftlie Jovis squyer Caucht in his clukis, and bair up in the air.

1575 G. Turberville Bk. Faulconrie 127 The Sparowhawkes do vse to kill the fowle at the Sowrce or Souse, as the Goshawkes do.

1612 J. Selden in M. Drayton Poly-olbion v. Illustr. 85 But the Goshauke taken at the source by the Falcon, soone fell down at the Kings foot.

?a1400 Morte Arth. 1978 In-to Sessoyne he soughte..And at the surs of the sonne disseuerez his knyghttez.

1616 J. Lane Contin. Squire's Tale ix. 179 He gallantlie receavinge bothe theire sourse, and theie as resolutelie quittinge force.

1581 T. Howell His Deuises sig. F.j Whose strayned hart in sowrce of sorrowe swymmes.

1607 M. Drayton Legend Cromwel 21 This was to me that ouerflowing sourse, From whence his bounties plentifully spring.

1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. i. 5 No man can shew me a Source, from whence those waters of bitterness..have more probably flowed.

1757 T. Gray Ode I iii. i, in Odes 10 This can..ope the sacred source of sympathetic Tears.

1775 W. Mason Gray's Ode Vicissitude in Poems 80 Near the source whence Pleasure flows.

1835 T. Mitchell in tr. Aristophanes Acharnians 479 (note) The foundation of Megara was in itself a source of hostile feeling, which was never likely to be wholly dried up.

c1374 G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde v. 1591 O swerd of knighthod, sours of gentilesse!

1390 J. Gower Confessio Amantis I. 46 Sche that is the Source and Welle Of wel or wo.

1412–20 J. Lydgate tr. Hist. Troy iii. 5469 Of knyȝthod grounde, of manhod sours & wel.

1613 J. Tapp Path-way to Knowl. 322 This Charracter √ signifieth the source, roote or beginning of any number or quantity whatsoeuer.

1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding ii. i. 38 This Source of Ideas, every Man has wholly in himself.

1762 O. Goldsmith Citizen of World I. 10 Pride seems the source not only of their national vices, but of their national virtues also.

1770 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) II. xxxix. 108 The free election of our representatives..is..the source and security of every right and privilege.

1831 W. Scott Castle Dangerous ii, in Tales of my Landlord 4th Ser. IV. 64 It is my duty..to leave no stone unturned by which this business may be traced to the source.

1857 W. A. Miller Elements Chem. III. ii. §3. 77 Gases of an offensive odour, which are the source of annoyance to the neighbourhood.

1875 H. E. Manning Internal Mission of Holy Ghost xii. 223 This intellectual perversion is the source of a systematic immorality.

1642 H. More Ψυχωδια Platonica sig. C8^v All strength and livelyhood is from this sourse.

1718 M. Prior Solomon on Vanity i, in Poems Several Occasions (new ed.) 412 She is oblig'd and forced to see A First, a Source, a Life, a Deity.

1759 W. Robertson Hist. Scotl. iii, in Hist. Wks. (1813) I. 197 The sixth article remained the only source of contest and difficulty.

1824 ‘R. Stuart’ Descr. Hist. Steam Engine 195 The many sources of consolation which were afforded by the circumstances.

1846 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) vii. 62 Something or somebody had superseded him as a source of interest.

1861 H. T. Buckle Hist. Civilisation Eng. (1873) II. viii. 559 One source of danger to which they had long been exposed was considerably lessened.

1670 J. Dryden Tyrannick Love iv. i. 31 And, thy full term expir'd, without all pain, Dissolve into thy Astral source again.

a1771 T. Gray Imit. Propertius in Wks. (1814) II. 88 [To] trace Back to its source divine the Julian race.

a1771 T. Gray Ess. I in W. Mason Mem. Life & Writings (1775) 198 Conscious of the source from whence she springs.

1819 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto I ix. 7 He traced his source Through the most Gothic gentlemen of Spain.

1803 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 9 257 He enquires into the source of the liquor amnii, and he explains..why this water is accumulated.

1827 M. Faraday Chem. Manip. xii. 279 Some of the impure sources of potash and soda used in the arts.

1862 W. A. Miller Elements Chem. (ed. 2) III. ix. 639 It is largely used in lamps as a source of light.

1788 W. Robertson Hist. Amer. Pref. The sources from which I have derived such intelligence.

1828 R. Burns Dissert. in Wodrow's Hist. Suff. I. p. ix The testimony of historians.., and other published sources of evidence.

1848 R. N. Wornum Lect. on Painting 114 (note) This celebrated work is said, though not upon very authentic sources, to have been carried to Constantinople.

1882 P. Schaff et al. Relig. Encycl. I. 501 The principal source to his life is Gregory of Tours.

1934 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Source, one who or that which supplies information.

1940 W. Faulkner Hamlet ii. i. 131 The Varners would know by now from the one incontrovertible source, the girl herself, that two of them were not guilty.

1961 Webster's 3rd New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. (at cited word) Sources close to the chief executive report he is planning to request the Legislature to approve state purchase. E. M. Mills.

1973 Atlanta (Georgia) Jrnl. 19 Apr. 17 a/1 Deputy White House press secretary Gerald Warren issued the following statement: ‘The White House is not prepared to react to a story based on sources.’

1979 E. Newman Sunday Punch i. 3 He had pointed me in the direction of a couple of stories—he was a kindly man and, as a source, needed no special motivation.

1864 J. C. Maxwell in Trans. Cambr. Philos. Soc. 10 32 If the origin of the tube or its termination be within the space under consideration, then we must conceive the fluid to be supplied by a source within that space, capable of creating and emitting unity of fluid in unity of time, and to be afterwards swallowed up by a sink capable of receiving and destroying the same amount continually.

1878 W. K. Clifford Kinematic in Elem. Dynamic 214 The point ς is called a source of strength μ when the fluid streams out in all directions; when μ is negative, so that the fluid streams inwards, it is called a sink.

1882 G. M. Minchin Uniplanar Kinematics 258 If a source or a vortex exist at P′, there will be a source or a vortex of equal strength at P.

1885 H. W. Watson & S. H. Burbury Math. Theory Electr. & Magn. I. 216 The given equipotential regions are in such a case generally termed electrodes, and sometimes sources or sinks of electricity, according to the direction of the current flow from or towards them.

1926 H. Glauert Elem. Aerofoil & Airscrew Theory iii. 21 A sink is a negative source or a point at which fluid is disappearing.

1956 E. H. Hutten Lang. Mod. Physics iv. 139 The engine is in contact with two heat reservoirs (the boiler and condenser, or the source and sink of energy) at different temperatures.

1971 I. G. Gass et al. Understanding Earth xix. 263/1 Boundaries at which the net effect of motion is to generate surface area are here termed sources.

1952 W. Shockley in Proc. IRE 40 1368/1 The principles of operation of the unipolar transistor are substantially different from those of the bipolar types. For this reason, it seems appropriate to consider choosing a new set of names for the three terminals... The choice selected is ‘source’.., ‘drain’.., and ‘gate’ for the control electrodes that modulate the channel. One reason for selecting ‘gate’..is that the subscript ‘g’ is reminiscent of ‘grid’ and the analogy is close between the two.

1962 J. H. Simpson & R. S. Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors viii. 173 The source and drain..are ohmic electrodes attached to the n-type body of the device [sc. a field-effect transistor].

1977 Sci. Amer. Sept. 74/3 The inversion creates a continuous n-type channel from source to drain and large currents can flow.

1899 A. B. Hart (title) Source-book of American history.

1899 A. B. Hart Source-bk. Amer. Hist. p. xvii The Source Book is meant to supplement, not to supplant the text-book.

1900 Univ. Corresp. 10 Feb. 93/1 We are very deficient in accessible source-books on this side of the Atlantic.

1927 Sunday Times 13 Feb. 9 A new series of source-books for students of history and literature.

1928 Observer 4 Mar. 8/3 These volumes will be amongst the source-books for the history of our own time.

1948 L. MacNeice Holes in Sky 43 We rarely read their poems, Mere source-books now.

1961 J. D. Rosenberg Darkening Glass (1963) v. 101 ‘The Nature of Gothic’..is the source book for Unto This Last.

1974 Education & Community Relations Jan. 3 The researchers also included a question on what support teachers would welcome from external sources and seven ideas were suggested, i.e. in-service courses, teachers guides or source books, pupils books, films, TV lessons, radio lessons and visiting speakers.

1982 Notes & Queries Dec. 535/2 Le Menagier de Paris has long been known as an invaluable sourcebook for practical details of everyday life in a reasonably prosperous middle-class household in France in the 1390s.

1971 J. Howlett in B. de Ferranti Living with Computer ii. 17 The general principle is to..use it..as source data for a whole series of studies.

1920 A. J. Grieve in A. S. Peake Commentary on Bible 725 It has therefore been surmised that the writer has here incorporated an Aramaic (possibly Greek) source-document.

1977 New Yorker 29 Aug. 35/2 Source documents, once put into computer-readable form, tend to become relatively inaccessible, and in some computer systems are even eliminated.

1936 Time 21 Sept. 47/1 For most of their source material the editors relied on second-rate writers.

1955 W. Moore Bring Jubilee xix. 182 It is not easy to see behind source material, to visualise state papers, reports, letters, diaries as written by men.

1978 Early Music 6 597/3 The discussion of the music combines a flair for words with great attention to stylistic interactions and the lessons to be learned from study of the source material.

1964 Eng. Stud. 45 252 Even those readers least interested in source-study are likely to have their notions of Shakespear's work made altogether more accurate.

1979 Stud. Eng. Lit.: Eng. Number (Tokyo) 3 Source study—by this is meant here not a mere source-hunting but a comparative study between words and their sources—is certainly rewarding so far as Confessio Amantis is concerned.

1964 D. Daiches Crit. Hist. Eng. Lit. iv. 82 An attempt to rescue literary study from the philologists and source-hunters.

1956 Canad. Forum June 67/1 His treatment of sources and analogues lacks the rigorous testing which we require of source-hunting in literary studies after twenty years of sniping by new critics and old scholars alike.