source language

Save This Word!

the language in which a text appears that is to be translated into another language.Compare target language (def. 1).

a language, usually the learner's native language, that is a source of interference in learning another language.Compare target language (def. 2).

QUIZZES

Set some time apart to test your bracket symbol knowledge, and see if you can keep your parentheses, squares, curlies, and angles all straight!

Question 1 of 7

Let’s start with some etymology: What are the origins of the typographical word “bracket”?

First recorded in 1955–60

Like many trans users, Transartist often gets used as a source of information more than anything else.
Grindr’s Trans Dating Problem|David Levesley|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
According to a Yemeni intelligence source, Saïd met with the notorious U.S. preacher Anwar al Awlaki.
France Kills Charlie Hebdo Murderers|Nico Hines|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Despite the strong language, however, the neither the JPO nor Lockheed could dispute a single fact in either Daily Beast report.
Pentagon Misfires in Stealth Jet Scandal|Dave Majumdar|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Jettison your lawyers as a source of prison-yard guidance, Abramoff said.
Abramoff’s Advice for Virginia’s New Jailhouse Guv|Tim Mak, Jackie Kucinich|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Some of them already are in Germany taking language lessons.
Ghost Ships of the Mediterranean|Barbie Latza Nadeau|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“Perhaps you do not speak my language,” she said in Urdu, the tongue most frequently heard in Upper India.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
I would ask you to imagine it translated into every language, a common material of understanding throughout all the world.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
And all over the world each language would be taught with the same accent and quantities and idioms—a very desirable thing indeed.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
The old earl's property, the source of his wealth, as from his title the reader will have shrewdly guessed, was in collieries.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills
But don't go hunting after them, there are still modern Immortals in the darkness of a forgotten language.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells