ordinatus

Forms

ōrdinātus (feminine ōrdināta, neuter ōrdinātum, comparative ōrdinātior, superlative ōrdinātissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the perfect participle from Latin ōrdinō (“to arrange, put in order”).^[1][3] De Vaan explains that verb as a later denominative of ōrdō (“row, order”), made when the link between the noun and its older denominative ōrnō (“to adorn”) had become opaque; for the noun he gives Proto-Italic *ord-n- (“row, order”) and, with a query, Proto-Indo-European *h2or-d-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example in the OLD is in Livy (59 BC–AD 17), who contrasts a disorderly flight with an orderly march.^[1][5] Georges cites it also from Cicero and Nepos.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means well ordered or regulated: Valerius Maximus has a city well ordered by its customs and laws, and Seneca the upper part of the world, more ordered than the lower, and a mind most ordered, sound and calm.^[1][3] Of movement it means orderly or regular: Apuleius uses the superlative of the courses of the planets, and Celsus of a naturally regular pulse.^[1] The land surveyors use it in geometry, with the dative, for lines that are parallel.^[1][3]

Timeline

• 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses it of an orderly march.^[1][5]
• 4 BC–AD 65 – Seneca uses it of an ordered mind.^[1][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a regular pulse.^[1][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of the courses of the planets.^[1][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Well-ordered, regulated, organized.^[1][2]
2. (of movement) Orderly, controlled;^[1] (of the pulse) regular.^[1]
3. (geometry, with dative) In alignment with, parallel to.^[1][3]

Usage notes

Medieval Latin also has nouns spelled ordinatus: Niermeyer records one of the second declension meaning a proxy and one of the fourth declension meaning furniture,^[6] and British sources have a fourth-declension noun for the arrangement or disposition of things, as of ships around 1193.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ 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