cordon

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French cordon (“ribbon”),^[2][3][4] from Old French cordon (“ribbon, cord”),^[5][6] a diminutive of corde (“cord, rope, string”),^[5][2][7][8] which comes from Latin chorda (“string, rope”),^[9] from Ancient Greek χορδή (khordḗ, “string, catgut”).^[5] In Anglo-Norman the word is recorded from 1160–74 for a string or lace of clothing and for a bowstring.^[6] The OED notes that the earliest English form appears to have come from Italian cordone, an augmentative of corda, but that it was soon superseded by the French word;^[10][11] the Oxford Dictionary of English derives it from both.^[9] The verb is borrowed from French cordonner (“to decorate with a cord or ribbon”), from the French noun.^[2][3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cord or fillet worn in token of victory: 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, spelled coordone.^[12][2] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century, as a cord or ribbon worn as an ornament or token of victory;^[5] the OED's first noun quotation, for an ornamental cord or braid of costume, is from 1578.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In fortification a cordon was a course of stones along the top of a rampart (1598), and in architecture a projecting band of stone on a wall (1706);^[10][11] Johnson (1755) knew only the fortification sense.^[13] From 1727 it was the ribbon of a knightly order, as in cordon bleu, the sky-blue ribbon of the old French order of the Holy Ghost, later applied jokingly to a first-rate cook.^[10][5][14] The military sense, a line of troops or posts guarding a place, appears in 1758 or 1759,^[2][5][10] and passed to any line of people round a place (1854) and to figurative use (1792, Burke).^[10] A guarded line between infected and healthy districts is recorded from 1826;^[10] French cordon sanitaire is attested in English from 1857,^[5] and Weekley quotes it in 1919 for a political barrier against Bolshevism.^[14] In gardening a cordon is a fruit tree pruned to a single stem (1878).^[10] The verb first meant to decorate with a cordon (1561); the modern sense, to enclose or cut off with a cordon, is recorded from 1891 in the OED and in Barnhart;^[10][2] Etymonline dates it to 1855.^[5]

Timeline

• 1440 – a cord or fillet worn in token of victory.^[12][2]
• 1561 – verb, to decorate with a cordon (obsolete).^[10][2]
• 1578 – an ornamental cord or braid of costume.^[10]
• 1598 – fortification, a course of stones at the top of a rampart.^[10]
• 1706 – architecture, a string-course.^[10]
• 1727 – the ribbon of a knightly order, as in cordon bleu.^[10][5]
• 1759 – military, a line of troops or posts guarding an area.^[10] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1758.^[2][5]
• 1826 – a guarded line against the spread of disease.^[10]
• 1854 – a line or circle of people round a person or place.^[10]
• 1878 – horticulture, a tree trained to a single stem.^[10]
• 1891 – verb, to enclose or cut off with a cordon.^[10][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A line or ring of police, soldiers, vehicles or ships placed around an area to guard it or to keep people in or out: Officers formed a cordon around the burning warehouse.^[8][3][10]
2. A guarded line between infected and uninfected districts, to stop the spread of a disease; a cordon sanitaire.^[10][5]
3. A ribbon worn, usually across the chest, as a badge of honour or of a knightly order.^[8][3][10]
4. An ornamental cord, braid or lace on clothing.^[8][3][10]
5. (heraldry) An ornamental cord around the shield of a church dignitary.^[3][10]
6. (architecture) A string-course, a projecting band of stone along a wall; in fortification, a course of stones at the top of a rampart.^[8][10][13]
7. (horticulture) A fruit tree pruned to grow as a single stem with fruiting spurs.^[8][10]

Verb

1. To surround or close off an area with a cordon, often with off: Troops cordoned off the square.^[8][3][10]
2. (obsolete, 1561) To decorate with a cordon.^[10][15]

Related words

• cord
• chord
• cordage
• cordon bleu
• cordon sanitaire

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press