English
extraordinary
Extraordinary comes from Latin extrāōrdinārius; by surface analysis, extra- + ordinary.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English extraordinary
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1787, The New Annual Register:: “[…] the sum that will probably be wanted for…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEextrāōrdināriusWiktionary, English extraordinary
- Englishearliest quotation 1787extraordinaryWiktionary, English extraordinary. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1787, The New Annual Register:: “[…] the sum that will probably be wanted for…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- ‘to bear, carry’
birth, bar, prefer, broad, bread, fortune, burden, barrel, bearing, breeze, barn, bore, fury, baron, bark, berth, broom, fret, barrow, embargo, ferret, insufferable, furtive, bier, proffer, bahar, birr, bairn, burnish, barrette, 112 more
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti ‘to bear, carry’
bear, borne, phosphate, phosphorus, euphoria, dysphoria, semaphore, indifferently, phosphine, 90 more
through Proto-Italic *ferō ‘to carry, bear’
suffering, differently, differentiation, indifferent, infertility, deference, infertile, differentially, deferential, differentiable, differentiator, 67 more
through Latin ferō ‘to bear, carry, bring’
different, offer, difference, reference, relative, transfer, suffer, relation, relate, translation, referendum, differ, referee, fertility, translate, fertile, defer, confer, fertilization, infer, elated, elation, collation, fertilize, collate, dilate, efferent, oblate, 78 more
through Latin auferō ‘to take away’
through Latin ablātīvus
frustration, strangely, frustrate, infra, strangeness, ablative, estrange, 2 more
through Latin extrā ‘outside the order’
Today it means
adj Out of the ordinary; exceptional; unusual.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “extraordinary”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin extrāōrdinārius / extraordinary