ordinal

Etymology

The adjective is inherited from Middle English ordinel, later ordynal,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French ordinel and directly borrowed from Late Latin ōrdinālis (“showing order, denoting an order of succession”).^[4][2] The OED, revised in 2004, names only the Latin adjective, which meant regular or orderly and, of a number, marking a place in a series, from the 6th century.^[5] That adjective is formed from Latin ōrdō (“row, series, order”), stem ōrdin-, and the suffix -ālis.^[5][6][7] The American Heritage Dictionary refers the Latin noun to the root Proto-Indo-European *ar-.^[8] The noun naming the church book is inherited from Middle English ordināl,^[3] borrowed from Medieval Latin ōrdināle,^[5][3][9][6] the neuter singular of the Late Latin adjective used as a noun,^[5][9] with liber (“book”) understood.^[10] The OED compares Anglo-Norman ordinal.^[5] Though the OED, the Shorter Oxford and Merriam-Webster Unabridged list the book and the numeral adjective under separate headwords, all three trace them to the same Latin adjective.^[5][10][9] The noun meaning an ordinal number is from the adjective.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A book setting out the order of church services at different times of the year: before 1325, in Rogationtide.^[5][3] Etymonline dates this noun to the early 14th century,^[4] and Barnhart to before 1325.^[11] The adjective appears about 1400 to 1425, in the sense "orderly, regular, proper":^[4][2][5] about 1410 in Barnhart,^[2] before 1425 in the OED, from Wyclif's Select English Works.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Medieval Latin the neuter noun came to name the book that fixed the order of services, frequent from about 1200 in British sources,^[5] and it carried that use into English; from 1395 it could also be the book of forms for ordaining deacons and priests and consecrating bishops,^[5] and any book of rules, from before 1393, in Gower, a sense that died out by 1661.^[5] The adjective first meant "conforming to order or custom; regular", a sense lost before 1500,^[5][10] and the sense that survives, marking a position in a series, is recorded in English from 1599, in a Spanish grammar by Perceval and Minsheu.^[5][2][9] The grammatical use was much older in the English record: Ælfric's Old English Grammar already used the Latin plural ordinalia for such numerals as primus, secundus and tertius.^[5] As a noun, an ordinal number, it is found from 1512 in Linacre's grammar in the OED,^[5] but only from 1591 in Barnhart.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective simply as "noting order: as, second, third".^[12] Biology added the sense "relating to an order" of plants or animals in 1822.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1325 – noun, a book giving the order of church services.^[5][3][11]
• before 1393 – noun, a book of rules (obsolete by 1661).^[5][3]
• 1395 – noun, a book of forms for ordination.^[5]
• c. 1410 – ordinel, orderly, regular (obsolete by 1496).^[2][5]
• 1512 – noun, an ordinal number.^[5] Barnhart dates it to 1591.^[2]
• 1599 – adjective, marking position in a series.^[5][2][9]
• 1822 – adjective, relating to an order in biological classification.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Showing a position in a sequence or series, as second and ninth do.^{[5][8][9][13]}
2. (biology) Of or relating to an order in the classification of plants or animals.^{[5][8][9][13]}
3. (obsolete, before 1425–1496) Conforming to rule or custom; regular, orderly.^[5][3][10]

Noun

1. An ordinal number.^{[5][8][9][13]}
2. The divisor of a fraction when spoken or written out, as thousandth in three thousandths.^[9]
3. (Christianity) A book of forms for the ordination of deacons and priests and the consecration of bishops.^{[5][8][9][13]}
4. (Christianity) A service book of directions for daily or yearly church services, now chiefly historical in English use.^{[5][8][9][13]}
5. (obsolete, before 1393–1661) A book or body of rules.^[5][3]

Word family

• ordinally
• subordinal
• ordinal number

Related words

• order
• ordinary
• ordain
• ordination

References

1. ^ a b 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 h 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)
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
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. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins