- ordinance
- c.1300, "an authoritative direction, decree, or command" (narrower or more transitory than a law), from O.Fr. ordenance, from M.L. ordinantia, from L. ordinantem (nom. ordinans), prp. of ordinare "put in order" (see ordain). By early 14c. senses had emerged of "arrangement in ranks or rows" (especially in order of battle), also "warlike provisions, equipment" (a sense now in ordnance).