wellhead

• well-head

From well +‎ head.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛlhɛd/

wellhead (plural wellheads)

1. The place where a spring breaks out of the ground; the source of water for a stream or well.
   • 1607, George Chapman, Bussy D'Ambois, London: William Aspley, Act I, Scene 1, p. 3,

     Leaue the troubled streames,

     And liue as Thriuers doe at the Well head.

   • 1789, William Gilpin, Observations on the River Wye, London: R. Blamire, Section 6, p. 74,

     It is a singular circumstance, that within a quarter of a mile of the well-head of the Wye, arises the Severn.

   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, Chapter 24,

     […] for the best part of three nights [we] travelled on eerie mountains and among the well-heads of wild rivers […]

2. (figuratively) The source of something; a fountainhead.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 5, Canto 9, p. 303,

     […] he likened was to a welhed

     Of evill words, and wicked sclaunders by him shed.

   • 1932, D. H. Lawrence, “Painted Tombs of Tarquinia” in Etruscan Places, New York: Viking, 1957, p. 113,

     […] a bull was not merely a stud animal worth so much, due to go to the butcher in a little while. It was a vast wonder-beast, a well-head of the great, furnace-like passion that makes the worlds roll and the sun surge up […]

3. The surface structure of an oil well etc.