cradle

1 a place of origin <Philadelphia is known as “the cradle of liberty” because it was there that the Declaration of Independence was signed> Synonyms birthplace, home, mother country, motherlandRelated Words hometown; Blighty [chiefly British], country, nativity, old country, roots

2 a point or place at which something is invented or provided <the 1848 meeting at Seneca Falls, New York, is often regarded as the cradle of the women's suffrage movement> Synonyms source, font, fountain, fountainhead, origin, root, seedbed, spring, well, wellspringRelated Words beginning, commencement, dawn, day one, genesis, get-go (also git-go), inception, incipience, incipiency, kickoff, launch, morning, nascence, nascency, onset, outset, start, threshold; baseline, first base, ground zero, square one