confused about ORIGIN and also named-checkzone

[Scott Haneda]

I moved a server to using named and manage it in the shell, I used to  
use a desktop app that did it for me.

In the process, when I edit a zone, I will push it throug the below  
command, to clean it up, and then I delete the first line, and last  
line in the output of the zone, and reload rndc

named-checkzone -D -s relative example.com example.com-hosts

It adds in $ORIGIN lines, which I am not sure entirely what they are  
for, at least, not in the way it is adding them in.  Here is an  
example zone, that works now

$TTL 86400
@       86400   IN      SOA     ns1.my-company.com.     scott.my- 
company.com.   2008033103      28800   7200    604800  7200
@               IN       NS      ns1.my-company.com.
captain.rustall.com      IN      A       127.0.0.2       ;Whitelist  
for winnow
lists.mysql.com          IN      A        
127.0.0.2       ;lists.mysql.com
12.153.224.55            IN      A       127.0.0.2       ;Etrade.com
messaging.nextel.com     IN      A        
127.0.0.2       ;messaging.nextel.com
moveon.org               IN      A       127.0.0.2
gmail.com                IN      A       127.0.0.2
dotster.com              IN      A       127.0.0.2
ebay.com                 IN      A       127.0.0.2
stmproducts.com          IN      A        
127.0.0.2       ;stmproducts.com is on dynamic
returns.groups.yahoo.com IN      A       127.0.0.2       ;yahoo groups
chopra.com               IN      A       127.0.0.2       ;they hit a  
spamtrap
barebones.com            IN      A       127.0.0.2
202.128.20.175           IN      A        
127.0.0.2       ;endtimeprophecy.org - Wordweaver

After I run it through named-checkzone with -D and -s, relative, I get  
the below output, which does not make sense.  If $ORIGIN sets a base  
of all below it, then it seems wrong to me...

$ORIGIN .
$TTL 86400      ; 1 day
wl.my-company       IN SOA  ns1.my-company.com. scott.my-company.com. (
                                 2008103000 ; serial
                                 28800      ; refresh (8 hours)
                                 7200       ; retry (2 hours)
                                 604800     ; expire (1 week)
                                 7200       ; minimum (2 hours)
                                 )
                         NS      ns1.my-company.com.
                         NS      ns1.nacio.com.

$ORIGIN wl.my-company.com.
202.128.20.175          A       127.0.0.2
12.153.224.55           A       127.0.0.2

$ORIGIN com.wl.my-company.com.
barebones               A       127.0.0.2
chopra                  A       127.0.0.2
constantcontact         A       127.0.0.2
dotster                 A       127.0.0.2
ebay                    A       127.0.0.2
gmail                   A       127.0.0.2
lists.mysql             A       127.0.0.2
messaging.nextel        A       127.0.0.2
captain.rustall         A       127.0.0.2
stmproducts             A       127.0.0.2
returns.groups.yahoo    A       127.0.0.2
$ORIGIN wl.my-company.com.
moveon.org              A       127.0.0.2

I hope I am reading this wrong, or I just fubar'd a whole bunch of  
zones :)
Thanks for any guidance
--
Scott