provenance

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French provenance (“origin”), from Middle French provenant, present participle of provenir (“come forth, arise”), from Latin provenio (“to come forth”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒ.və.nəns/, /ˈpɹɒ.vəˌnɒns/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑ.və.nəns/, /ˈpɹoʊ.və.nɑns/

Noun

provenance (countable and uncountable, plural provenances)

1. Place or source of origin.

   Many supermarkets display the provenance of their food products.

   • 2015, James Lambert, “Lexicography as a teaching tool: A Hong Kong case study”, in Lan Li, Jamie McKeown, Liming Liu, editors, Dictionaries and corpora: Innovations in reference science. Proceedings of ASIALEX 2015 Hong Kong, Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, page 147:

     Within this melee of intersections between English and Cantonese, the students, being themselves bilingually fluent, were able to navigate with perfect ease in communicative contexts where the provenance of a certain term or expression matters little.

2. (archaeology) The place and time of origin of some artifact or other object. See Usage notes below.

   This spear is of Viking provenance.

   • 1982, Thomas Lawton, “Bronze Vessels, Fittings, and Weapons”, in Chinese Art of the Warring States Period‎^[1], Smithsonian Institution, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 79, column 1:

     Further support for the Shansi provenance came in 1965, when a bronze quadruped with identical ornamentation and of approximately the same size as the Freer example was unearthed in tomb 126, at Fen-shui-ling, Ch'ang-chih, Shansi Province.

3. (art) The history of ownership of a work of art.

   The picture is of royal provenance.

4. (computing) The copy history of a piece of data, or the intermediate pieces of data used to compute a final data element, as in a database record or web site (data provenance).
5. (computing) The execution history of computer processes which were used to compute a final piece of data (process provenance).
6. (of a person) Background; history; place of origin.

   Synonym: ancestry

Usage notes

• The term provenience in archaeology has largely replaced provenance because provenience is restricted to in situ location at the date of archaeological discovery rather than the "origin-to-present" chain of custody details of proper provenance as is customarily used by historians, museums, and commercial entities.

Derived terms

• country of provenance

Related terms

• provenantial

Translations

place or source of origin

• Bulgarian: произход (bg) m (proizhod), източник (bg) m (iztočnik)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: původ (cs) m, provenience f
• Danish: proveniens c, herkomst c
• Dutch: herkomst (nl)
• Esperanto: deveno
• Finnish: alkuperä (fi)
• German: Herkunft (de) f, Provenienz (de) f
• Hungarian: eredet (hu), származás (hu)
• Irish: foinse f, stair (ga) f
• Kapampangan: ibatan, penibatan
• Maori: tātai takenga
• Persian: سرمنشأ (sar-manša')
• Polish: pochodzenie (pl) n, proweniencja (pl) f
• Portuguese: procedência (pt) f, proveniência f
• Romanian: proveniență (ro) f
• Russian: происхожде́ние (ru) n (proisxoždénije)
• Slovak: pôvod (sk) m, proveniencia f
• Spanish: procedencia (es) f, proveniencia f
• Swedish: ursprung (sv) n, proveniens (sv) c
• Turkish: köken (tr), menşe (tr)
• Ukrainian: похо́дження n (poxódžennja)

in archaeology: the place and time of origin of some artifact

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: alkuperä (fi)
• Hungarian: származás (hu)
• Russian: происхожде́ние (ru) n (proisxoždénije)
• Spanish: procedencia (es) f, proveniencia f

in arts: the history of ownership of a work of art

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: omistajahistoria, provenienssi (fi)
• French: provenance (fr) f
• German: Provenienz (de) f
• Irish: stair shaoil f, stair úinéireachta f
• Russian: провена́нс (ru) m (provenáns)
• Spanish: procedencia (es) f, proveniencia f
• Turkish: köken (tr), menşe (tr)

in computing: the copy history of a piece of data

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: alkuperä (fi)
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

in computing: the execution history of computer processes

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: prosessin kulku, käsittelyhistoria
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

of a person: background, history, place of origin, ancestry

• Bulgarian: произход (bg) m (proizhod)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: alkuperä (fi), sukujuuret pl
• German: Herkunft (de) f
• Hungarian: származás (hu)
• Portuguese: procedência (pt) f, proveniência f
• Russian: род (ru) m (rod), происхожде́ние (ru) n (proisxoždénije)
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: härkomst (sv) c
• Turkish: köken (tr), menşe (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} provenance (fr) f
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} provenientia
• Irish: ^{(please verify)} bunáitíocht f
• Tagalog: ^{(please verify)} pinanggalingan, ^{(please verify)} pinagmulaan

Verb

provenance (third-person singular simple present provenances, present participle provenancing, simple past and past participle provenanced)

1. To establish the provenance of something

Translations

to establish provenance

• Finnish: selvittää alkuperä

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔv.nɑ̃s/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

provenance f (plural provenances)

1. provenance, origin

   La violence continue en provenance de Homs, l’épicentre de contestation.

   Violence continues in Homs, the epicentre of the protests.

Related terms

• provenir

Further reading

• “provenance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.