1590s, "position, place; fact or condition of being in a particular place," from Latin locationem (nominative locatio) "a placing," noun of action from past participle stem of locare "to place, put, set," from locus "a place" (see locus). Meaning "act of placing or settling" is from 1620s. Of tracts of land, "act of fixing the boundaries of by survey," 1718, hence "a bounded or marked-off parcel of ground" (1792). The Hollywood sense of "place outside a film studio where a scene is filmed" is from 1914.
