ordain

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ordeinen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman ordeiner, also ordener and ordainer, and ordener, with the stressed stem ordein-, later ordonner (modern French ordonner),^[5][6][7] and partly directly borrowed from Latin ōrdinō (“to put in order, arrange, appoint”),^[8][9] from ōrdō (“row, rank, order”), the source of order.^[9][8][10] Already in Old French the verb meant to arrange in order (1119), to confer holy orders (about 1140) and to command (about 1165); the Latin verb meant to appoint to the Christian ministry in the Vetus Latina and the Vulgate, and to confer holy orders in Tertullian, in the early 3rd century.^[5] The OED thinks the French form ordonner was probably influenced by donner (“to give”).^[5] The Latin noun is from the root Proto-Indo-European *ar-.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To arrange in rows or ranks, especially in order of battle, and to keep in due order or govern: both about 1300, in the South English Legendary's lives of Wulfstan and Thomas Becket.^[5] Barnhart dates ordeynen, to assign, decree, appoint or arrange, to about 1250,^[8] and Dictionary.com to 1250–1300.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The church sense, to admit someone to the ministry, is recorded from about 1300 and was taken from Late Latin;^[8][9] Weekley found the ecclesiastical sense the earliest of all, in the 13th century.^[7] The general idea behind it is "to confer holy orders".^[9] The sense "to establish something by ordinance" is from the early 14th century,^[9][5] and the verb also meant to prepare, equip or provide in Middle English, senses that had died out by the 16th century.^[5][6] Johnson (1755) gave "to appoint; to decree" as the first sense.^[12] The old sense "to put in order, regulate" lived on in the west of England:^[5] in Worcestershire and Herefordshire dialect to ordain a child was to keep it in order, and in Somerset and Warwickshire to ordain meant to intend or arrange to do something.^[13] A noun ordain, a decree, was used from 1596 to 1804.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to arrange in ranks or in order of battle; to govern, regulate.^[5]
• c. 1300 – to admit to the ministry of the Church.^[8][9]
• c. 1325 – to establish or institute by ordinance (now archaic).^[5][6]
• 1340 – to prepare, make ready (obsolete by 1578).^[5]
• 1596 – noun, a decree (obsolete by 1804).^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make someone a priest or minister; to confer holy orders on: She was ordained in the cathedral last spring.^[14][3][6]
2. To order or establish with authority; to decree: The council ordained that the market close at noon.^[14][3]
3. Of God or fate, to destine or predestine.^[14][3]
4. (archaic) To set up or institute.^[6][5]
5. (obsolete) To appoint to an office.^[14][6]

Word family

• ordainer
• ordainment
• ordainable
• foreordain
• ordainee
• reordain
• preordain

Related words

• order
• ordinance
• ordination
• ordinary
• ordinal
• coordinate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins