ordenance

Forms

ordenance f^[1]

• ordonance, ordinance, ordrenance, ordennance, ordenence, ordenanche, ordinanche, ordeinance, ordenaunce^[1][2][3][4]

The Picard forms end in -anche, and the insular ones are often written -aunce.^[3][4] In the Frantext texts of 1300–1500 ordonnance is already more frequent than ordenance, 823 against 537.^[5]

Etymology

It is formed from Old French ordener + -ance, the verb meaning “to arrange, order”.^[6][1] The FEW files it under the source of the verb, Latin ordinō (“to arrange, put in order”),^[7] and Van Daele gives an unattested Vulgar Latin *ordinantia as its etymon.^[8] The Latin verb is formed from ōrdō (“row, order”).^[9][10]

Gamillscheg explains the later forms in ⟨-on-⟩ by the association of the verb with doner “to give”, which gave French ordonner and with it French ordonnance.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Greimas dates the word to the 12th century without naming a text.^[11] The first dated record the TLFi gives is Étienne Boileau's Livre des métiers of 1260, which sets out the trades of Paris with leur ordenance, the rules each of them had to keep.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Order and arrangement were there from the start: in Jean de Meun's part of the Roman de la Rose, which the TLFi dates 1269–1278, things are said to be en ordenance, Tobler–Lommatzsch cite the word for a procession of queens, and the AND for battle order.^[12][1][4] Beside this, it named what a person in authority decided: a regulation, a judge's order, and, from 1287, as ordrenance, the will of arbitrators whom both parties had to obey.^[13][12][2] Tobler–Lommatzsch also record it for a way of life.^[13]

In the 14th century it was the word for a royal ordinance, l'ordenance roial, and for the order of a ceremony.^[12] The Middle French dictionaries keep a separate ordinance, found mostly in texts from Liège and in Anglo-Norman letters, for order and command.^[14] Modern French ordonnance later took the senses of a judge's decision (1510), a doctor's prescription (1558) and, from 1752, an officer's orderly.^[12]

Timeline

• 1260 – ordenance of the rules of the Paris trades in Étienne Boileau's Livre des métiers.^[12]
• 1269–1278 – en ordenance “in order” in Jean de Meun's part of the Roman de la Rose.^[12][15]
• 1283 – ordenances in the Livre Roisin.^[16]
• c. 1285 – the AND's first insular citation.^[4]
• 1287 – ordrenance “decision” of arbitrators in a document from Fieffes.^[12][2]
• c. 1290 – ordonance in Jean Priorat's Abrejance de l'ordre de chevalerie, from the Franche-Comté.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. order, arrangement, disposition; array, battle order.^[1][4]
2. a regulation, ordinance or decree made by those with the power to make it.^[13][12][4]
3. a decision, command.^[2][4]
4. a way of life.^[13]
5. (Anglo-Norman) a contrivance, fittings; a battle engine, machinery.^[4]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word ordenance, first cites it about 1285, and lists spellings from ordegnance and ordeinance to ordynaunce.^[4] Its insular senses run from order and discipline to battle engines, the decrees of a gild or town, treaties and stipulations of law.^[4] Middle English took the word as Middle English ordinaunce, from ordenance and its variants,^[18] recorded from about 1300 for an authoritative decree;^[19] Etymonline allows a direct source in Medieval Latin ordinantia as well.^[19] By the early 14th century it also meant military equipment, the sense of English ordnance.^[19]

Word family

• desordenance

Descendants

• Middle French ordonnance (→ French ordonnance)^[20][12]
• Middle English ordinaunce (borrowed; → English ordinance, English ordnance)^[18][19]

Related words

• ordener
• ordenement

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch head the word ordenance,^[1] Godefroy ordonance and ordinance,^[2][21] the AND ordenance^[4] and the DMF ordonnance and ordinance.^[20][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 6:1187
2. ^ a b c d e Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 5:620
3. ^ a b FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. ordenance
5. ^ ATILF (2017), LGeRM: lexique morphologique du moyen français, version 2.0.0, Nancy: ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, ORTOLANG (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 FR), p. s.v. ordonnance
6. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 700
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7:397
8. ^ Van Daele, Hilaire, Petit dictionnaire de l'ancien français, Paris: Garnier, p. 326
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ordinō
10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
11. ^ Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. ordenance
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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
13. ^ a b c d Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 6:1188
14. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. ordinance
15. ^ Stein, Achim; Kunstmann, Pierre; Gleßgen, Martin-D., eds., Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam, version 4 (lemmatised corpus of Old French texts, after A. Dees), Universität Stuttgart, github.com/michaniets/NCA (texts by DEAF siglum), p. RoseLLec
16. ^ Martineau, France, et al., Corpus MCVF (Modéliser le changement: les voies du français), version 2.0, University of Ottawa (texts by file name), p. 1283-livre-roisin-mcvf-p
17. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. JPrioratR
18. ^ a b 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)
19. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
20. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. ordonnance
21. ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 5:618