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Origin vs Background - What's the difference?

origin | background | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between origin and background

is that origin is the beginning of something while background is one's social heritage; what one did in the past/previously.

As a verb background is

to put in a position that is not prominent.

origin

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The beginning of something.
  • The source of a river, information, goods, etc.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author= Sam Leith
  • , volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where the profound meets the profane , passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.}}
  • (mathematics) The point at which the axes of a coordinate system intersect.
  • (anatomy) The proximal end of attachment of a muscle to a bone that will not be moved by the action of that muscle.
  • (cartography) An arbitrary point on the earth's surface, chosen as the zero for a system of coordinates.
  • (in the plural) Ancestry.
  • Synonyms

    * (source) source * (mathematics) zero vector

    Antonyms

    * (source) destination * (anatomy) insertion

    See also

    * provenance

    background

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One's social heritage; what one did in the past/previously.
  • A part of the picture that depicts scenery to the rear or behind the main subject; context.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= William E. Conner
  • , title= An Acoustic Arms Race , volume=101, issue=3, page=206-7, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close
  • Information relevant to the current situation about past events; history.
  • A less important feature of scenery (as opposed to foreground).
  • (computing) The image or color, over which a computer's desktop items are shown (e.g. icons or application windows).
  • (computing) Activity on a computer that is not normally visible to the user.
  • Derived terms

    * on background * background fodder

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To put in a position that is not prominent