English
ornate
Ornate comes from Latin ōrnātus, from ōrnō ‘to equip, adorn’, 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‘to equip, adorn’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrnātusperfect passive participle of ōrnō
- Englishearliest quotation 1907ornate
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‘to equip, adorn’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrnātusperfect passive participle of ōrnō
- Englishearliest quotation 1907ornate
Earliest quotation: 1907, Robert William Chambers, New York: “The house of Ruthven was a small but ultra-modern…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- ‘to fit, to fix, to put together, to slot’
reason, art, ready, order, article, army, artist, arm, rate, alarm, harmony, ratio, armor, arthritis, arithmetic, harmonic, anarchy, artisan, articulate, inertia, harmonious, inert, aristocratic, armament, articulation, armadillo, harmonize, rta, artifice, archon, rime, armature, harmonium, arche, inordinate, 72 more
through Latin ōrdō ‘a methodical series, arrangement, or order’
ordinary, coordination, coordinate, ordination, subordinate, ordain, ordinal, ordinator, ordinate, ordo, 8 more
through Latin ōrnō ‘to equip, adorn’
Today it means
adj Elaborately ornamented, often to excess.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin ōrdō / ornate