See Also: Ordinary(medicine)
Ordinary(money)
ordinary(2)(dictionary)
ordinary(1)(dictionary)
ordinary(dictionary)
Ordinary interest(finance)
ordinary shares(dictionary)
Ordinary trade(finance)
ordinary seaman(dictionary)
Ordinary income(finance)

ordinary(2) (iou)



ordinary noun. ME.
[Anglo-Norman, Old French ordinarie (later and mod. ordinaire) from medieval Latin ordinarius (sc. judex judge etc.) and in neut. sing. ordinarium: see ORDINARY adjective & adverb.]
I. Rule, ordinance.
a. A formula or rule prescribing a certain order or course of action; an ordinance, a regulation. Only in ME.
b. A prescribed or customary procedure. Only in 16.
Ecclesiastical. A rule prescribing, or book containing, the order or form of a religious service, esp. the Mass; the service of the Mass; spec. (usu. Ordinary) the unvarying parts of a Roman Catholic service, esp. those which form a sung Mass. L15.
Gramophone Two well-known items of the Ordinary, Sanctus I and Sanctus XI.
II. A person, a group of people.
Law. A person who has immediate jurisdiction in ecclesiastical cases, as the archbishop in a province, or the bishop in a diocese. LME.
A courier conveying letters etc. at regular intervals. Also, post, mail. L16-M18.
Law. A judge having authority to attend to cases by right of office and not by delegation; spec. (a) Scots Law (now rare) = Lord Ordinary s.v. ORDINARY adjective; (b) US Law a judge of a probate court. E17.
Nautical. A group of officers, labourers, etc., in charge of warships laid up in harbour. Treated as pl. M17-M18.
Hist. A diocesan officer, spec. the chaplain of Newgate prison, who gave condemned prisoners their neck-verses and prepared them for death. L17.
W. Besant The prisoner was conveyed..in a cart..while the ordinary sat beside him and exhorted him.
III. Something ordinary, regular, or usual.
A lecture read at regular or stated times. LME-E16.
A regular allowance or portion, esp. a regular daily meal or allowance of food. L15-M17.
Heraldry.
a. A dictionary of heraldic bearings, arranged by design. Also ordinary of arms, ordinary of crests, etc. E16.
b. A charge of the earliest, simplest, and commonest kind, bounded in its simple form by straight lines. E17.
a. A meal regularly available at a fixed price in a restaurant, public house, etc. Formerly also, the body of people eating such a meal. L16.
b. (A dining-room in) a restaurant, public house, etc., where such meals are provided. L16.
K. Boyle Carrie sat in the Ordinary..shaking with fear of what they might serve her.
c. In parts of the US, a public house, an inn. M17.
a. The ordinary or usual condition, course, or degree; customary or usual thing. Now colloq. L16.
N. Sedaka The roller coaster..is an escape from the ordinary.
b. An ordinary or commonplace thing or person. rare. E17.
Hist. An early ungeared bicycle with one large and one very small wheel; a penny-farthing. L19.
Commerce. An ordinary share (as opp. to a preference share etc.). L19.
Phrases: in ordinary (a) = ORDINARY adjective 1b; used postpositively in titles, as painter-in-ordinary, physician-in-ordinary, etc.; Lord of Appeal in Ordinary: see LORD noun; (b) Nautical History (of a ship) laid up, out of commission. ordinary of arms, ordinary of crests: see sense 10a above. out of the ordinary unusual.
Comb.: ordinary table Hist. (a) a table at which an ordinary was served, cleared afterwards for gambling; (b) a gambling table, a gambling house.