The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Originate \O*rig"i*nate\, v. i.
   To take first existence; to have origin or beginning; to
   begin to exist or act; as, the scheme originated with the
   governor and council.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Originate \O*rig"i*nate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Originated; p.
   pr. & vb. n. Originating.] [From Origin.]
   To give an origin or beginning to; to cause to be; to bring
   into existence; to produce as new.
   [1913 Webster]

         A decomposition of the whole civil and political mass,
         for the purpose of originating a new civil order.
                                                  --Burke.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

originate
    v 1: come into existence; take on form or shape; "A new
         religious movement originated in that country"; "a love
         that sprang up from friendship"; "the idea for the book
         grew out of a short story"; "An interesting phenomenon
         uprose" [syn: originate, arise, rise, develop,
         uprise, spring up, grow]
    2: bring into being; "He initiated a new program"; "Start a
       foundation" [syn: originate, initiate, start]
    3: begin a trip at a certain point, as of a plane, train, bus,
       etc.; "The flight originates in Calcutta"

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

136 Moby Thesaurus words for "originate":
   arise, author, be born, bear, become, beget, begin, birth,
   break ground, break out, break the ice, breed, bring about,
   bring forth, bring into being, bring to effect, bring to pass,
   burst forth, call into being, cause, coin, come, come forth,
   come from, come out, come to be, commence, compose, conceit,
   conceive, conceptualize, concoct, contrive, cook up, create,
   crop up, derive, derive from, design, develop, devise, discover,
   do, dream up, effect, effectuate, emanate, emerge, engender, erupt,
   establish, evolve, experience imaginatively, fabricate, fancy,
   fantasize, father, fictionalize, flow, form, formulate, found,
   frame, generate, gestate, get to be, give being to, give birth to,
   give occasion to, give origin to, give rise to, grow, hatch,
   have origin, head, head up, ideate, imagine, improvise, inaugurate,
   initiate, innovate, institute, introduce, invent, irrupt, issue,
   issue forth, launch, lead, lead off, lead the way, make,
   make do with, make up, mastermind, mature, mint, mold, occasion,
   organize, parent, pioneer, plan, precede, proceed, procreate,
   produce, realize, result, revolutionize, rise, set afloat,
   set on foot, set up, shape, sire, spawn, spring, spring from,
   spring up, stand first, start, stem, stem from, strike out,
   suppose, take birth, take rise, take the initiative, take the lead,
   take the plunge, think out, think up, usher in, work