order

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The way things are arranged in relation to one another.

   Please put the names in alphabetical order.

2. 2
   noun

   A request for food, drinks, or goods to be supplied.

   I gave the waiter my order.

3. 3
   noun

   An instruction that must be obeyed, given by someone in authority.

   The soldiers waited for orders from their commander.

4. 4
   noun

   A state in which rules are followed and there is no confusion or trouble.

   The teacher worked hard to keep order in the classroom.

5. 5
   noun

   A legally binding command or decision made by a court.

   The judge issued an order banning him from the building.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Order entered English in the Middle English period from Latin ordo, meaning “row, series, rank.” An early meaning was an institution founded by a ruler to honour people. It was also used for a rank such as priest or bishop in the Christian Church, while its sense of an instruction or command is recorded from the 16th century. Latin ordo was also the source of ordinary, ordain, ordinance, and ordnance.

From Middle English ordre, from Old French ordre, ordne, ordene (“order, rank”), from Latin ōrdinem, accusative of ōrdō (“row, rank, regular arrangement”, literally “row of threads in a loom”), from Proto-Italic *ordō (“to arrange”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂or-d-, from *h₂er-. Related to Latin ōrdior (“begin”, literally “begin to weave”). In sense “request for purchase”, compare bespoke. Doublet of ordo. Compare typologically Russian поря́док (porjádok) (akin to ряд (rjad)).

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary