How to sign: the place where something begins, where it springs into being
"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";
Similiar / Same: origin, source, rootage, beginning
Categories: point
Within this category: birthplace, derivation, fountainhead, headwaters, home, jumping-off place, point source, spring, trail head, wellhead
How to sign: someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)
Similiar / Same: ancestor, antecedent, ascendant, ascendent
Categories: relation, relative
Within this category: ancestress, forebear, forefather, foremother, progenitor