provenience

****************************************************************
Hooked on your Collegiate Dictionary? There's a perfectly
legal way to feed your addiction online. Check it out!
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/collegiate_sub.pl?refr=C-wod
****************************************************************

The Word of the Day for October 21 is: 

provenience   \pruh-VEE-nee-unss\   noun
     : origin, source 

Example sentence:
     Its exact provenience is shrouded in mystery, but some people think the 
Hope diamond was cut from a gem stolen from the French crown jewels in 1792.

Did you know?
     Did you suspect that "provenience" and "provenance" originate from the 
same source? You're right; they're parent and child. "Provenance" is the older 
of the two. It has been used to mean "origin" in English since at least the 
1780s, when it was borrowed from French. Its linguistic grandfather is the 
French verb "provenir," meaning "to come forth, originate." The French verb, in 
turn, derives from Latin "provenire," a composite of "pro-" (meaning "forth") 
and "venire" (meaning "come"). "Provenience" is a chip off the old block, 
originating as a modification of "provenance" about 100 years after its parent 
debuted in English texts. The source of the extra syllable in "provenience" is 
most likely "proveniens," a participle of "provenire." (The similar Latin 
participle 
"conveniens" gave us "convenience," another "venire" derivative.)