Etymograph

English

ordinate

Ordinate comes from Latin ōrdinātus ‘arranged, ordered, having been put in order,…’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂er-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂er-1‘to fit, to fix, to put together, to slot’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*ordō1reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrdō1‘order’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrdinō2‘arrange, put in order’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrdinātus3‘arranged, ordered, having been put in order, organized’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ordinat(e)3
  7. Englishtodayordinate3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin ordino
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin ordinatus
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English ordinate

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂er-Wiktionary, Latin ordino‘to fit, to fix, to put together, to slot’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*ordōWiktionary, Latin ordinoreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrdōWiktionary, Latin ordino‘order’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrdinōWiktionary, Latin ordinatus‘arrange, put in order’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrdinātusWiktionary, English ordinate‘arranged, ordered, having been put in order, organized’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ordinat(e)Wiktionary, English ordinate
  7. EnglishtodayordinateWiktionary, English ordinate

The story

Partly inherited from Middle English ordinat(e) (adjective and participle), partly directly borrowed from Latin ōrdinātus, perfect passive participle of ōrdinō, see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3). Sense 5 of the verb is from a back-formation from ordination.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- ‘to fit, to fix, to put together, to slot’

reason, art, ready, article, army, artist, arm, rate, alarm, ratio, harmony, armor, arthritis, arithmetic, anarchy, harmonic, artisan, articulate, harmonious, aristocratic, armament, inertia, articulation, inert, harmonize, rta, artifice, armadillo, archon, rime, armature, harmonium, arche, 78 more

through Proto-Italic *ordō

order, 6 more

through Latin ōrdō ‘order’

ornament, adorn, ornate, ordo, orn, ordain, 14 more

through Latin ōrdinō ‘arrange, put in order’

coordination, 6 more

Today it means

noun The second of the two terms by which a point is referred to, in a system of fixed rectilinear coordinate (Cartesian coordinate) axes.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “ordinate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin ordino, Latin ordinatus. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- / ordinate

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