ordenar

Forms

ordenar (first-person singular present ordeno, first-person singular preterite ordenei, past participle ordenado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote ordenar, ordinar, ordinhar and ordỹar.^[2][3][4] Houaiss also records ordemnaõ in 1552.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ōrdinō (“to set in order, arrange”), written Old Galician-Portuguese ordenar and Old Galician-Portuguese ordinar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][5] Nascentes calls it a semi-learned form of the Latin verb.^[5] In his fuller dictionary he quotes Nunes's view that it is a modern remodelling, on the Latin pattern, of the old form Old Galician-Portuguese ordinhar, which the Crónica Geral still uses.^[6][4]

Its popular doublet is ordenhar “to milk”, which Houaiss explains from the use of the verb in the language of shepherds and dates to a law of 1209.^[7][4] Corominas traces Spanish ordeñar “to milk” to Vulgar Latin *ordiniō, and Wiktionary derives the Portuguese verb the same way.^[8][1]

The same Latin verb gave Catalan ordenar, French ordonner, Italian ordinare and Romanian urdina.^[9]

The Latin verb is formed from ōrdō (“row, rank, order”).^[10][1] De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic stem ord-n- and, with a question mark, Proto-Indo-European *h₂or-d-.^[10] Wiktionary also calls the origin uncertain and relates the noun within Latin to artus (“joint, limb”).^[1] De Vaan explains ōrnō (“to equip, adorn”) as the older verb of the same noun, and Wiktionary calls them doublets.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates ordenar and ordinar to the 13th century from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, and Cunha records ordỹar in the same century.^[2][3] In the Crónica Troiana the verb means to arrange and to command: ordenaron assy todos sua fazenda “so they all set their affairs in order”.^[4] The same text also uses it for plotting harm: o mal que lles ordenou “the harm that he plotted for them”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Crónica Geral uses the verb for ordaining clergy, for founding a church of regular canons and for drawing up a will (ordenar seu testamento).^[4] Viterbo records an old sense “to provide what one needs to live according to one's station”, with a document of 1560.^[11]

Folqman's dictionary of 1755 already separates the three main senses of today: to put in order, to command, and to confer holy orders.^[12] Morais adds the legal ordenar o processo, to draw up a lawsuit in the form the Ordenações prescribe.^[13] Nascentes explains the sense “to command” from the idea that putting things in order sometimes requires authority.^[5][2] The sense “to plot in secret” is now obsolete.^[2] In computing the verb means to sort items into a sequence.^[14][1]

Timeline

• 13th century – ordenar and ordinar in Houaiss, ordỹar in Cunha.^[2][3]
• 14th century – Cunha's date for ordenar.^[3]
• c. 1450 – the Livro das tres vertudes (witness after 1450) uses the verb.^[15]
• 1552 – the spelling ordemnaõ.^[2]
• 1560 – a document cited by Viterbo uses ordenar for putting a religious house in order.^[11]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary translates ordenar by Latin ordino.^[16]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses it “to put in order”.^[17]
• 1755 – Folqman separates the senses “put in order”, “command” and “give holy orders”.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais lists the military, legal and religious uses.^[13]
• 1873 – Houaiss's last record of the old form ordinhar.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put in order, arrange, organise: Ordenou as fotografias por ano.^[2][18][19]
2. (reflexive, ordenar-se) To get oneself or one's affairs organised.^[2][19]
3. To command, give an order: A diretora ordenou que fechassem as janelas.^[2][20][1]
4. To prescribe or recommend, as one's conscience or feelings dictate.^[2]
5. (Christianity) To ordain, confer holy orders on;^[2][20][1] (reflexive) to be ordained: Foi ordenado sacerdote aos trinta anos.^[2][20][1]
6. (computing) To sort items into a sequence by some criterion.^[14][1]
7. (rare) To assign someone to a task.^[2]
8. (obsolete) To plot something in secret.^[2][4]

Word family

• reordenar
• desordenar
• ordenamento
• ordenança
• ordenável

Related words

• ordeiro
• ordem
• ordenação
• ordenado
• ordenador
• ordenhar
• ordinal
• ordinário
• Latin ōrdinō
• Spanish ordenar

Usage notes

Silva Bastos records a local sense in Coimbra, to clean and gut fish (amanhar).^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ordenar
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ordenar
4. ^ a b c d e f g Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. ordenar
5. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. ordenar
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. p. 366
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ordenhar
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ordeñar
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6090
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ōrdō
11. ^ a b Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 185
12. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ordenar
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 137
14. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. ordenar
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ordenar
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ordenar
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ordenar
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ordenar
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6723
20. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. ordenar
21. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. ordenar