Etymograph

English

orn

Orn comes from Latin ornō ‘to furnish, equip, outfit, prepare’, and goes back to ōrdō ‘a methodical series, arrangement, or order’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrdō1‘a methodical series, arrangement, or order’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEornō2‘to furnish, equip, outfit, prepare’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400orner2
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1545orn2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin orno
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English orn
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1545, George Joye: “God stered vp prophetes and orned his chirche with…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōrdōWiktionary, Latin orno‘a methodical series, arrangement, or order’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEornōWiktionary, English orn‘to furnish, equip, outfit, prepare’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400ornerWiktionary, English orn
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1545ornWiktionary, English orn. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1545, George Joye: “God stered vp prophetes and orned his chirche with…”

Linked words

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

reason, art, ready, rate, article, order, army, artist, arm, ratio, alarm, harmony, arthritis, armor, articulate, anarchy, arithmetic, harmonic, artisan, aristocratic, inertia, harmonious, articulation, inert, armament, armadillo, harmonize, rta, artifice, armature, archon, rime, inordinate, harmonium, arche, 71 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 furnish, equip, outfit, prepare’

ornament, ornate, adorn, 5 more

Today it means

verb To ornament; to adorn.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “orn”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin orno. 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 ōrdō / orn

Shirt and support for this word