beginning the act of starting something; "he was responsible for the beginning of negotiations"
germination the origin of some development; "the germination of their discontent"
cause a justification for something existing or happening; "he had no cause to complain"; "they had good reason to rejoice"
preliminary,
prelude,
overture something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what follows; "training is a necessary preliminary to employment"; "drinks were the overture to dinner"
origin -
properties attributable to your ancestry; "he comes from good origins"
origin -
the point of intersection of coordinate axes; where the values of the coordinates are all zero
origin -
the source of something's existence or from which it derives or is derived; "the rumor had its origin in idle gossip"; "vegetable origins"; "mineral origin"; "origin in sensation"
origin -
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"
jumping-off place,
point of departure a place from which an enterprise or expedition is launched; "one day when I was at a suitable jumping-off place I decided to see if I could find him"; "my point of departure was San Francisco"
family line,
kinfolk,
kinsfolk,
phratry,
sept,
folk,
family people in general (often used in the plural); "they're just country folk"; "folks around here drink moonshine"; "the common people determine the group character and preserve its customs from one generation to the next"
