sourcedrain

Sourcedrain is a term that appears in some technical discussions as a portmanteau of "source" and "drain." It does not correspond to a widely adopted standard term in major reference works and is generally used informally. The meaning of sourcedrain can vary by field, and in many contexts it serves as a shorthand rather than a formal label.

In electronics, sourcedrain is sometimes used to refer to the pair of terminals on a field-effect transistor (FET), namely the source and the drain, or to discussions about current flow between those terminals. In MOSFETs and JFETs, current typically flows from the drain to the source under conventional operation, with device behavior influenced by channel orientation and the body diode. Because sourcedrain is not a standardized designation, engineers typically describe the source and drain terminals separately or refer to the device terminals as a set.

In data engineering and information governance contexts, sourcedrain may appear as a shorthand for the flow from data sources to data sinks or destinations within a pipeline. This usage is not universal and is less formal than established terms such as data lineage, data flow, or source-to-target mapping.

Etymology and usage notes: The term is a modern coinage derived from combining "source" and "drain." It is more likely to be found in informal notes, blog posts, or glossaries than in formal specifications or standards.

See also: MOSFET, transistor, source (electronics), drain (electronics), data lineage, data flow, ETL.