means The practice of handing off work or services to an outside party — often a separate company or one in another country — rather than handling it in-house.

from A relatively modern business coinage, built from plain English parts: "out" (away from oneself) plus "source" (the origin or supplier of something). "Source" itself traces back through Old French to Latin 'surgere,' to rise up — the place from which a thing springs forth, as a river rises from its source. The verb "to outsource," meaning to obtain goods or labor from an outside source, surfaced in the language of management and manufacturing in the late 20th century and spread fast as the world's supply chains stretched across borders.