Etymologically
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ordination

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:52. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˌɔːdɪˈneɪʃn̩/[1]
  • US: /ˌɔɹdəˈneɪʃn̩/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ordinacioun,[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman ordinatiun and ordination, and directly borrowed from Latin ōrdinātiō (“the action of ordering, arranging”).[5][4][6][7][2] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1270 for a rule or directive, or a decree made by a guild or town.[8][5] In Old French it meant the conferring of holy orders from about 1200.[5] The Latin noun is formed from ōrdinātus, the past participle of ōrdinō (“to put in order, arrange, appoint”), the source of ordain,[5][4][9][10] from ōrdō (“row, rank, series, arrangement”), the source of order.[4][11] Post-classical Latin used it for the conferring of holy orders by the turn of the 3rd century, in Tertullian, and for an ordinance or decree from the mid 5th century.[5] The OED compares Italian ordinazione and Spanish ordenación.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A divine decree: about 1400 according to Etymonline, before 1400 according to Barnhart, in the spelling ordynacyone.[4][6] The OED's earliest record, before 1425 in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, has the sense arrangement in orders or classes.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word meant both arrangement and a divine decree or dispensation, and was also used for the ordaining of an archbishop and the establishment of a rite.[2][6] The sense of admitting someone to holy orders, which Etymonline calls the main surviving one, appears in English in the 15th century,[5][4] while from 1650 the word was occasionally used of appointment to any office.[5] In the 17th century it could also mean the purpose for which something was destined (1607 to 1829),[5] and Johnson (1755) gave the senses "established order or tendency" and the investing of a man with priestly power.[12] The general senses of arranging and of ordaining or decreeing are now rare.[5] In 1954 ecologists took up the word for a statistical technique that arranges data from many sites as points in several dimensions, after German Ordnung.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – a divine decree.[4][6]
  • before 1425 – arrangement in orders or classes (obsolete by 1885).[5][2]
  • before 1425 – the ordaining of an archbishop.[6][2]
  • c. 1450 – the ordaining or decreeing of God or fate.[5]
  • before 1475 – the conferring of holy orders.[5]
  • c. 1499 – an ordinance or decree (obsolete by 1894).[5]
  • 1531 – the action of arranging, or an arrangement.[5]
  • 1650 – appointment to any office (obsolete).[5]
  • 1954 – a statistical technique in ecology.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act or ceremony of conferring holy orders; admission to the Christian ministry: Her ordination took place in the cathedral last spring.[13][3][5]
  2. The state of being ordained.[13][3]
  3. The ordaining or decreeing of something, especially by God or fate.[5][7][3]
  4. Arrangement or ordering; disposition.[3][13][5]
  5. (statistics, ecology) A technique for ordering data from many sites or populations by arranging them as points in several dimensions.[5]

Word family

  • nonordination

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University 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. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins