Ordain

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Dr. Goodword
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Ordain

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Jul 05, 2022 11:17 pm

• ordain •


Pronunciation: or-dayn Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. To certify someone as a priest or minister or otherwise confer a holy order; to invest in a religious office. 2. To prescribe in a fixed way, unalterably predestine. 3. To authorize, decree, or order something officially.

Notes: This word connotes a holy or reverential action. The noun is ordainment, and someone who ordains is called an ordainer. The person an ordainer ordains is an ordainee (or ordinee). You may use the present participle, ordaining, as an adjective or action noun. There is a rarely used passive adjective, ordainable.

In Play: Ordain is probably used more often in a religious sense: "Hallie Louia was an ordained minister before she ran for Congress." It does have other uses though: "It is futile to resist what is ordained by fate."

Word History: Today's Good Word was based on Old French ordener "designate, order" (Modern French ordonner "organize, arrange"). It was inherited from Latin ordinare "arrange, order, regulate", a verb created from the noun ordo, ordinis "row, series, arrangement". Latin built its word from PIE ar- "to fit together" extended by a suffix -dos, which we also find in Latin ordinarius "in order, regular, ordinary". With the suffix -tos, it emerged in Latin "artus "joint" and ar(t)s "art", and German Art "way, manner". It also arose metathesized in Albanian radhä "row", Serbian rad "work", Welsh rhif "number", and German Rat "council, advice". Without metathesis but with the suffix -mos, we find it in Greek armos "seam, joint", Latin arma "arms, armor", and Russian yarmo "yoke". (Now, a word of thanks to an avid contributor in Sweden, Joakim Larsson, for suggesting today's crafty Good Word that escaped the religious vocabulary.)
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bbeeton
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Re: Ordain

Postby bbeeton » Wed Jul 06, 2022 10:27 am

Two probably related nouns not mentioned: ordinance and ordinary.

Both have several interesting meanings, so are hereby suggested.

David Myer
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Re: Ordain

Postby David Myer » Sun Jul 10, 2022 4:49 am

Yes indeed, Barbara. Let's explore at least one of those two.

Ordinance for regulations, but not for munitions or for the wonderful invention, widely used by the scouts and cadets for navigation, an ordnance survey map - with no i. Something entirely different I expect. But maybe the maps and the munitions meanings are related to each other, if not to ordain?

bbeeton
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Re: Ordain

Postby bbeeton » Sun Jul 10, 2022 11:11 am

Oh, I love maps, and topographical maps (and nautical charts) are the best.

Any military operation needs good information about the terrain they're going to be faced with, and that's how the Ordnance Survey got involved. (Wikipedia identifies the origin of the U.K. Ordnance Srvey maps to the need for information in preparation for possible invasion during the Napoleonic Wars.) The comparable maps in the U.S. are produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and they're beautiful as well as useful.

David Myer
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Re: Ordain

Postby David Myer » Mon Jul 11, 2022 6:59 am

Bravo, Barbara. Your comments moved me to have a look at the Wikipedia entry and a fascinating story it reveals. What joy.

But it doesn't say whether the word is in some way related to either ordain or ordinance. I suspect both.


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