Word of the Day Archive
Monday August 11, 2008
provenance \PROV-uh-nuhn(t)s\ , noun:
Origin; source.
In a world awash in information of dubious provenance, whom can you trust to tell you the truth?
-- Gerald Jonas, review of The Jazz, by Melissa Scott, New York Times, June 18, 2000
There may have been as many as one hundred antique statues of Roman provenance in the city at the time of the Fourth Crusade.
-- Patricia Fortini Brown, Venice & Antiquity
The provenance of his possessions traced back to dukes and duchesses, kings, queens, czars, emperors, and dictators.
-- John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Provenance comes from French, from provenant, present participle of provenir, "to originate," ultimately from Latin provenire, from pro-, "forth" + venire, "to come."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for provenance
