ordinario

Forms

ordinario (feminine ordinaria, masculine plural ordinarios, feminine plural ordinarias)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin ōrdinārius (“arranged in order; regular, usual”).^[2][3][1][4] The adjective is formed from Latin ōrdō (“row, order”) + -ārius.^[5][1] Corominas lists it among the learned words of the family of orden, the semi-learned descendant of the same noun, and notes a semi-popular form ordenario in Nebrija.^[2]

The same Latin word is French ordinaire, Italian ordinario, Portuguese ordinário and Asturian ordinariu.^[6][7][8][9] French borrowed it as a noun in 1260.^[10]

De Vaan derives ōrdō from Proto-Italic *ord-n- (“row, order”), and only tentatively from Proto-Indo-European *h₂or-d-.^[11] Wiktionary, too, calls the origin uncertain.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are legal and ecclesiastical: Alfonso X's Partidas speak of one who has power to judge the clergy assi cuemo juyz ordinario “as an ordinary judge”.^[12][13] DEMel also has ordinarios in Maestre Jacobo's Doctrinal (1252–1289).^[13] Corominas cites the word first from Juan Ruiz, and Segura dates it to 1335.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias (1611) gives three senses: what is common and happens every day, the daily household expense, and the competent judge who hears cases in the first instance.^[14] Autoridades (1737) adds the pejorative sense “low, common, of little worth”, quoting a price list of 1680 for an ordinary frying pan, and the sense “without rank”, as in soldados ordinarios “common soldiers”.^[15] In 1817 the Academy recorded it also as the opposite of noble, that is, plebeian.^[16] The 1869 edition added the mail that came at fixed intervals, as opposed to the extraordinario sent when needed.^[17]

Domínguez (1846) already defines a person as ordinario who is rude and uncivil.^[18] Garzón (1910) notes the sense “coarse, rude” in Argentina, which the Academy did not yet record.^[19] In several American countries the word is said of a vulgar or taboo word.^[20] In older use an ordinario was a carrier who regularly took goods, people or errands from one town to another.^[3][21] Baralt (1855) condemned por lo ordinario as a Gallicism, the Spanish phrase being de ordinario.^[22]

Timeline

• 1252–1289 – Maestre Jacobo's Doctrinal has ordinarios.^[13]
• 1256–1265 – the Partidas speak of the juyz ordinario.^[12][13]
• 1335 – Segura's date;^[7][2] Corominas's first record is in Juan Ruiz.^[7][2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija has the semi-popular form ordenario.^[2]
• 1550 – the first record from the Americas, an alcalde ordinario in La Paz.^[23]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives the senses “common”, “daily expense” and “judge of first instance”.^[14]
• 1737 – Autoridades records the senses “low, vulgar” and “without rank”.^[15]
• 1855 – Baralt rejects por lo ordinario as French.^[22]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin ordinarius.^[24]

Meanings

Adjective

1. ordinary, common, regular; happening as usual: la sesión ordinaria del consejo.^[3][1]
2. Plebeian, not noble.^[3]
3. Coarse, vulgar, of poor quality or little worth; of a person, rude or ill-mannered (also as a noun).^[3][1][21]
4. Having no rank or distinction among its kind.^[3]
5. Of expenses or meals, those of every day in a household (also as a noun).^[3]
6. Of a bishop, having a diocese of his own (also as a noun, “the ordinary”).^[3]
7. Of mail, sent by the usual means and times, not by air or express.^[3]
8. (law) Of a dispatch, routine, dealing with the ordinary steps of a case.^[3]
9. (Latin America) Of a word, vulgar or taboo.^[20]

Noun

1. (religion) The unchanging prayers of the Mass, the ordinary.^[3]
2. (rare) A man who regularly runs errands to another town; a carrier or muleteer who carried people and goods between towns.^[3]

Word family

• ordinariamente
• ordinariez

Related words

• extraordinario
• orden
• ordenar
• Latin ōrdinārius
• French ordinaire

Usage notes

De ordinario means “usually, often”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 291
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ordinario
4. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. ordinario
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ordinārius
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ordinaire
7. ^ a b c d 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. 515
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ordinário
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. ordinariu
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b 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. ordinario
13. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ordinario
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 1177
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 50
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 618
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 555
18. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1294
19. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 341
20. ^ 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. ordinario
21. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ordinario
22. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 481
23. ^ 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. ordinario
24. ^ 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