English
ornament
Ornament comes from Latin ornamentum ‘equipment, apparatus, furniture, trappings,…’, and goes back to ōrdō ‘a methodical series, arrangement, or order’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrdō‘a methodical series, arrangement, or order’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEornōas ornāre‘to equip, adorn’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEornamentum‘equipment, apparatus, furniture, trappings, adornment, embellishment’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400ornement
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ornament
- Englishearliest quotation 1864ornament
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 CEornōas ornāre‘to equip, adorn’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEornamentum‘equipment, apparatus, furniture, trappings, adornment, embellishment’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400ornement
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ornament
- Englishearliest quotation 1864ornament
Earliest quotation: 1864, Alfred Tennyson, Aylmer’s Field: “Dust are our frames; and, gilded dust, our pride…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- ‘to fit, to fix, to put together, to slot’
reason, art, ready, order, rate, article, army, artist, arm, ratio, alarm, harmony, armor, arthritis, articulate, anarchy, harmonic, artisan, arithmetic, aristocratic, inertia, harmonious, articulation, inert, armadillo, harmonize, rta, artifice, armature, archon, armament, inordinate, rime, 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 ornō ‘to equip, adorn’
Today it means
noun An element of decoration; that which embellishes or adorns.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin ōrdō / ornament