Provenance definition

prŏvə-nəns, -näns
Provenance is defined as the place where something originally came or began, or a record tracing the ownership history of certain items that helps to confirm their authenticity and value.

When a rug is woven in India, this is an example of a time when the provenance is India.

When a piece of art can be traced back in history as first having been owned by a King and then by two collectors, this history of the owners is an example of the provenance of the art.

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Place of origin; derivation.
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The history of the ownership of an object, especially when documented or authenticated. Used of artworks, antiques, and books.
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Origin; derivation; source.
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Place or source of origin.

Many supermarkets display the provenance of their food products.

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The records or documents authenticating such an object or the history of its ownership.
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(archaeology) The place and time of origin of some artifact or other object. See Usage note below.

This spear is of Viking provenance.

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

The picture is of royal provenance.

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

Noun

Singular:
provenance
Plural:
provenances

Origin of provenance

  • French from provenant present participle of provenir to originate from Old French from Latin prōvenīre prō- forth pro–1 venīre to come gwā- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From French provenance (“origin"), from Middle French provenant, present participle of provenir (“come forth, arise"), from Latin provenio (“to come forth").

    From Wiktionary

Provenance Sentence Examples

  • The exact provenance of these cylinders is not known, but there is every reason to believe that they were found in Cyprus.

  • Edmund Naumann was the discoverer of these facts, and his attention was first drawn to them by learning that an edible sea-weed, which flourishes only in salt water, is called Asakusanon, from the place (Asakusa) of its original provenance, which now lies some 3 m.

  • Whatever view be taken of the provenance of Codex Vaticanus it is plain that its archetype had the Pauline epistles in a peculiar order which is only found in Egypt, and so far no one has been able to discover any non-Alexandrian writer who used the Neutral text.

  • Beyond the fact that it was found at Nippur during the fourth of the American expeditions, there does not appear to be any exact record of its provenance; and, in order to determine its date, it is necessary to rely on the external and internal evidence furnished by the tablet itself.

  • We cannot to-day determine the exact homes or provenance of these freebooters, who were a terror alike to the Frankish empire, to England and to Ireland and west Scotland, who only came into view when their ships anchored in some Christian harbour, and who were called now Normanni, now Dacii, now Danes, now Lochlannoch; which last, the Irish name for them, though etymologically " men of the lakes or bays," might as well be translated " Norsemen," seeing that Lochlann was the Irish for Norway.

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Words near provenance in the Dictionary