The traceable account of where a thing came from and whose hands it passed through. Provenance is what makes a claim checkable rather than merely asserted.
French provenance, from provenir (to come forth, to originate), from Latin provenire: pro- (forth) + venire (to come); provenance is the traceable coming-forth of a thing, hand by hand, back to its source.
The traceable account of where a thing came from and whose hands it passed through. The root's coming-forth is the whole point: provenance turns a claim about origin into a path that can actually be followed back.