orden

Forms

orden f (plural órdenes)^[1] Old Spanish texts also spell it horden;^[2][1] órden with a written accent is an older spelling.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ordo (“row, rank, order”), by a semi-learned development.^[3][4][5][1] Corominas notes that a fully popular development would have given *orne, and that the learned influence is easily explained by the word's frequent use in religious and political matters.^[3] The same Latin word is Portuguese ordem, Catalan orde, Italian ordine and Old French orne, which survives in French dialects as “furrow”, beside the learned French ordre.^[6][7][8]

The Oxford Latin Dictionary takes the Latin noun to be originally a weaving term, “a thread on the loom”, related to ordior (“to begin a web”).^[9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *ord-n- (“row, order”), with orno (“to equip, adorn”) as its original verb, and finds a link with Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- (“to fit”) attractive.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), where a churchman asks to strike the first blows: „Mi orden e mis manos querríalas ondrar” “I would like to do honour to my order and my hands”.^[3][4][11] The Cortes of Benavente of 1202 speak of land held by otras órdenes, the religious orders.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word meant religious order, rule, sacrament and the ordinance of things: Berceo says entró en orden “became a monk” and calls a nun mugier de orden.^[12][3] Alfonso X's prose has the series of things, holy orders, the religious orders and the orders of knighthood.^[13] Covarrubias gave dar orden “to give instructions” and estar en orden “to be ready”.^[14]

The gender has always varied: Autoridades calls the noun ambiguous.^[15] Today it is masculine for arrangement, sequence, rank and the taxonomic order, and feminine for a command, a religious or knightly order and a request.^[5][1][16] The DLE records that the masculine senses were once also used as feminine.^[5] In the United States and much of the Caribbean and Central America, orden (feminine) is also a dish or drink ordered in a restaurant, after English order.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy).^[3][11]
• 1202 – the Cortes of Benavente speak of the religious orders.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – first record of ordenar and ordenamiento.^[4]
• 1256–1300 – Alfonso X's Partidas use it for holy orders and the religious orders.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin ordinatio and ordo; he has desorden too.^[18][4]
• 1530 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[19]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls the noun of ambiguous gender.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the sense of an order of merit.^[20][21]

Meanings

Noun (masculine)

1. The placing of things where they belong; tidiness, good arrangement: Pon un poco de orden en este cajón.^[5][1]
2. A rule or method followed in doing things.^[5]
3. A series or sequence: por orden alfabético.^[5][1]
4. Sphere or field: en el orden económico.^[5]
5. Level or rank: de primer orden.^[5][1]
6. (history) A social class or estate.^[5]
7. (architecture) Each of the classical systems of columns and proportions.^[5]
8. (biology) A taxonomic order between class and family.^[5][1]
9. (geometry, mathematics) The degree of a line or equation.^[5][1]
10. (music) A course of strings on an instrument.^[5]

Noun (feminine)

1. A command that must be obeyed: Recibieron la orden de salir.^[1][16]
2. A religious order; an order of knighthood or of merit.^[1][13][21]
3. (religion) The sacrament of holy orders, also masculine in this sense.^[5][1]
4. (United States, Mexico, Caribbean, Central America) A dish or drink ordered in a restaurant; an order for goods.^[17][1]

Word family

• ordenar
• ordenanza
• desordenar
• desorden

Related words

• coordinar
• ordenamiento
• ordinal
• ordinario
• ordeñar
• Latin ordo
• Portuguese ordem

Usage notes

Gender separates the senses: el orden is arrangement or sequence, la orden a command or an order of monks or knights (la orden de Santiago).^[5][1][16] Fixed phrases include orden del día “agenda” and a sus órdenes “at your service”.^[22][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. orden
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 291
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. orden
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. orden
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6086
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4707
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. orne
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ordo
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ordo
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. orden
12. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 541
13. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. orden
14. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1176
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 48
16. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. orden
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. orden
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 390
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. orden
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 763
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1118
22. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 514