outsourced
UK[ˌaʊtˈsɔːst]US[ˈaʊtˌsɔːrst]
v
(of a business) arrange for (work) to be done by people from outside the company, often to reduce costs.
v
(past tense and past participle of 'outsource') contracted out or delegated to an external provider.
Morpheme Breakdown
out
source
ed
out
source
ed
Etymology
the term 'outsourced' is a modern business compound formed from the adverb/preposition 'out' and the noun 'source,' which entered english via old french from the latin 'surgere,' meaning "to rise" or "to spring up." the concept literally means to seek a supply or origin from outside one's own organization. the addition of the '-ed' suffix marks it as a verb in its past form, reflecting the completed action of contracting work externally. this lexical construction directly mirrors the economic practice of moving internal functions to external suppliers, a strategy that became prominent in late 20th-century corporate management.
Analysis
Structure: out + source + ed
- out (old english): a prefix meaning "external, outward, away."
- source (old french, from latin): the root meaning "origin, supplier, or point of procurement."
- ed (old english): a suffix forming the past tense and past participle of regular verbs.
Examples
the company outsourced its customer service operations to a specialized firm.
many it functions have been outsourced to reduce overhead costs.
they outsourced the manufacturing of components to a factory overseas.