English
adorn
Adorn comes from Latin adōrnāre, from ōrnō ‘furnish, embellish’, and ultimately from ōrdō ‘a methodical series, arrangement, or order’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrdō‘a methodical series, arrangement, or order’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrnō‘furnish, embellish’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEadōrnāre
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500adornen
- Englishearliest quotation 1590adorn
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrdō‘a methodical series, arrangement, or order’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrnō‘furnish, embellish’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEadōrnāre
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500adornen
- Englishearliest quotation 1590adorn
Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto XII: “Her brest all naked, as nett yvory Without adorne…”
The story
Replaced earlier Middle English aournen (‘to adorn’) borrowed from Old French aorner, from the same Latin source.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- ‘to fit, to fix, to put together, to slot’
reason, art, order, rate, article, army, ready, artist, arm, ratio, alarm, harmony, armor, arthritis, articulate, anarchy, arithmetic, harmonic, artisan, aristocratic, inertia, harmonious, articulation, inert, armament, harmonize, rta, artifice, armature, armadillo, archon, rime, inordinate, harmonium, arche, 72 more
through Latin ōrdō ‘a methodical series, arrangement, or order’
ordinary, coordination, coordinate, subordinate, ordination, ordinate, ordinator, ordinal, ordain, ordo, 8 more
through Latin ōrnō ‘furnish, embellish’
Today it means
verb To make more beautiful and attractive; to decorate.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin ōrdō / adorn