any xform has an origin. what I am referring to is the coordinate system origin about which an object is scaled.
i.e. suppose i have an object that is at 1000,0,1000 units (it's "world space" location), and I scale that object by 2 because I want to make it twice as big
as it currently is. It will now be twice as big, but will no longer be at world space 1000,0,1000, but at 2000, 0, 2000. Dig? it isn't a question of how
big the thing ends up being, but where the origin of the scale is coming from... ? not sure how else to explain it.