Etymologically
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ordinaire

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɔʁ.di.nɛʁ/[1]

Forms

ordinaire (plural ordinaires)[1] First ordenaire (1260); ordinaire from 1335.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ōrdinārius (“arranged in order; regular, usual”), derived from ōrdō (“order, rank”), the source of ordre.[3][2][4][5] In Church Latin the word meant a cleric regularly attached to a church and, as a noun, the person holding church jurisdiction over a place, the weekly monk in charge of the refectory or a royal judge.[3] Wiktionary treats the Old French word as inherited after an early borrowing.[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan ordinari, Italian ordinario and Spanish ordinario.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Livre de Jostice et de Plet (1260) uses ordenaire as a noun for the diocesan church authority.[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

The noun also named the book containing the ordinary of the Mass (1328).[2][3] In the 14th century the word became an adjective meaning “in accordance with the normal order” (1348) and described a person who regularly holds an office, as juge ordinaire (1355), already found earlier in Old Occitan.[3][7][4] From the 15th century it took wider senses: what is usually done (c'est l'ordinaire de, Corneille, 1643), what is normal (Amyot, 1559).[2][4]

As a noun it also meant one's usual food (1489), the daily ration of oats for horses (1690) and a soldiers' mess (1766), and a regular post leaving and arriving on fixed days (1636).[2] By extension the adjective came to mean “commonplace, mediocre”, and in Quebec “rude, shabby”.[1][8]

Timeline

  • 1260 – Ordenaire, the diocesan authority.[2]
  • 1328 – The book of the ordinary of the Mass.[2]
  • 1348 – The adjective “normal, usual”.[3][9]
  • 1355 – Juge ordinaire.[7][3]
  • 1489 – The usual food.[2]
  • 1636 – A regular post.[2]
  • 1643 – Corneille: c'est l'ordinaire de.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Normal, usual, ordinary: le cours ordinaire des choses, sa gaieté ordinaire.[8][1]
  2. Average, common, with nothing special: des gens ordinaires, (familiar) c'est pas ordinaire !, that's remarkable.[8]
  3. Mediocre, commonplace.[1][8]
  4. Of a person, regularly holding an office: juge ordinaire.[3][8]
  5. (Quebec) Rude, discourteous.[1]

Noun

  1. L'ordinaire: what is usual, the ordinary: sortir de l'ordinaire, d'ordinaire, usually.[1][8]
  2. Everyday food, (military) the soldiers' mess.[2][8]
  3. (Christianity) The bishop who has jurisdiction in a diocese; the unchanging parts of the Mass.[2][3]

Word family

  • extraordinaire
  • ordinairement

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 400a
  6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert