ordinary

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman ordenarie, ordenaire et al., Middle French ordinaire, and their source, Medieval Latin ordinarius, noun use of Latin ōrdinārius (“regular, orderly”), from ōrdō (“order”).

noun

1. A person with authority; authority, ordinance.
   1. (ecclesiastical, law) A person having immediate jurisdiction in a given case of ecclesiastical law, such as the bishop within a diocese.
   2. (obsolete) A courier; someone delivering mail or post.
      I […] will lay to till you come within hail […] but pray respond by the first ordinary. 1819, Lord Byron, Letter, 15 May
   3. (law) A judge with the authority to deal with cases himself or herself rather than by delegation.
   4. (now historical) The chaplain of Newgate prison, who prepared condemned prisoners for death.
2. Something ordinary or regular.
   1. (obsolete) Customary fare, one's regular daily allowance of food; (hence) a regular portion or allowance.
   2. (now chiefly historical) A meal provided for a set price at an eating establishment.
      Here he recommended me to fix my board, there being an excellent ordinary daily at two o'clock, at which I might dine or not as I pleased. 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 169
   3. (now archaic, historical) A place where such meals are served; a public tavern, inn.
      He enjoyed a perpetual port duty of fourteen pence a ton, on vessels not owned in the province, yielding not far from five thousand dollars a year; and he exacted a tribute for licenses to hawkers and peddlers and to ordinaries. 1899, Richard Garnett, Léon Vallée, Alois Brandl, editors, The Universal Anthology, Bancroft, page 320
   4. (heraldry) One of the standard geometric designs placed across the center of a coat of arms, such as a pale or fess.
   5. An ordinary person or thing; something commonplace.
   6. (now Scotland, Ireland) The usual course of things; normal condition or health; a standard way of behaviour or action.
   7. (now historical) A penny farthing bicycle.
   8. (Christianity) A part of the Christian liturgy that is reasonably constant without regard to the date on which the service is performed.
3. A book setting out ordinary or regular conduct.
   1. (obsolete) A devotional manual; a book setting our rules for proper conduct.
   2. (Christianity) A rule, or book of rules, prescribing the order of service, especially of Mass.

adj

1. (law, of a judge) Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases.
2. Being part of the natural order of things; normal, customary, routine.
   On an ordinary day I wake up at nine o'clock, work for six hours, and then go to the gym.
   Method is not leſs requiſite in ordinary converſation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himſelf underſtood. a. 1719, Joseph Addison, The Works of the Late Honourable Joseph Addison, Eſq., volume 3, published 1741, page 545
3. Having no special characteristics or function; everyday, common, mundane; often deprecatory.
   I live a very ordinary life most of the time, but every year I spend a week in Antarctica.
   He looked so ordinary, I never thought he'd be capable of murder.
   a. 1859, Thomas Macaulay, "Samuel Johnson," in 1871, Lady Trevelyan (Hannah More Macaulay Trevelyan, editor), The Works of Lord Macaulay Complete, Volume 7, page 325, An ordinary lad would have acquired little or no useful knowledge in such a way: but much that was dull to ordinary lads was interesting to Samuel.
   You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf. 27 October 2015, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better, Plum, page 192
4. (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, informal) Bad or undesirable.
   1983 September 20, Bruce Stannard, Australia II Joins Our Greats, The Age, republished 2003, David Headon (editor), The Best Ever Australian Sports Writing: A 200 Year Collection, page 480, It was, in some ways a sad, almost pathetic sight to see this great American boat which had fought so hard throughout the cup summer, now looking very ordinary indeed.
   1961, Joanna White, quoted in 2005, A. James Hammerton, Alistair Thomson, Ten Pound Poms: Australia′s Invisible Migrants, page 80, For myself, I loved adventure and travelling. I′d already done quite a bit of travelling in Europe and — couldn′t get enough of it and whilst my marriage, at that stage, was very happy, he was very entrenched as a Londoner, Cockney, absolutely Cockney Londoner, and I could see that our future was pretty ordinary and so my hidden agenda I suppose was to drag him out to Australia and hope that both our lifestyles would improve and there would be new opportunities.
   Everyone started making suggestions as to what to do but they were all pretty ordinary ideas such as lighting a fire and hope someone would see the smoke and come to rescue us and so on. 2007, Chris Viner-Smith, Australia′s Forgotten Frontier: The Unsung Police Who Held Our PNG Front Line, page 28
   Since the general public gained access to the Internet in 1993-4, firstly by narrowband dial-up access and since 1998 by very ordinary, so-called broadband speeds (generally less than 1 Mbps), a social and cultural revolution has been underway. 2010, Mal Bryce, Australia's First Online Community Ipswich Queensland, page 125