ordinalis

Forms

ōrdinālis (neuter ōrdināle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ōrdō (“row, order”) + -ālis.^[1][2][3] De Vaan traces the base back to Proto-Italic *ord-n- (“row, order”), and with a question mark to Proto-Indo-European *h₂or-d-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The grammarian Priscian, of the 6th century AD,^[3] uses it of numerals that mark a place in a series, such as prīmus, secundus, tertius;^[5][2] he also applies it to prepositions.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Medieval grammarians kept the grammatical sense: Alcuin's grammar sets ordinals such as prīmus and secundus against numerals such as ūnum and duo, and Ælfric's grammar explains the distributives singulī and bīnī in Old English.^[6] British Medieval Latin also used it for what concerns rank.^[6]

In the Church a liber ōrdinālis was a liturgical book, and the neuter used as a noun, ordinale, named the book itself.^[7][8] English took the noun as ordinal, the book of the order of services, which Etymonline traces to the Medieval Latin noun use, and later the adjective, partly through Old French.^[9]

Timeline

• 6th century AD – Priscian uses it of ordinal numerals.^[5][3]
• early 14th century – English borrows the noun use as ordinal, a service book.^[9]
• c. 1400 – The English adjective ordinal appears, from Old French and directly from Late Latin.^[9]
• 1522 – A record from Płock refers to the ceremonies kept in the church's liber ōrdinālis.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (grammar) Denoting a place in an order or series, ordinal: nōmen ōrdināle, an ordinal numeral.^[2][5][10]
2. (Medieval Latin) Concerned with rank.^[6]
3. (Medieval Latin) In liber ōrdinālis, a book setting out the order of church services; see also ordinale.^[7][8]

Related words

• ordo
• English ordinal

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.