Wiktionary

ordure

English edit

WOTD – 19 November 2019

Etymology edit

From Middle English ordure, ordure,[1] borrowed from Middle French ordure and Anglo-Norman ordure, ordeur(e), ordor(e), ordour from Old French ordure (“dirt, filth, refuse; dung, excrement; moral filth”) (modern French ordure), from ord (“filthy”) + -ure (suffix forming nouns describing the results of actions). Ord is derived from Latin horridus (“dreadful, frightful, horrid”), from horreō (“to stand erect, stand on end; to shiver, tremble; to be afraid of, dread; to be frightful”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“stiff; surprised”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’).[2]

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

ordure (countable and uncountable, plural ordures)

  1. Dung, excrement.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:feces
    • 1733, “Dr. S——t” [pseudonym; formerly attributed to Jonathan Swift], Human Ordure, Botanically Considered. […], printed at Dublin, and reprinted at London: For F. Coggan […], →OCLC, page 6:
      But there has none employed my Thoughts of late ſo much, as a very nice inquiſition, or inſpection, into the frequent differences we meet with Human Ordure. The World may ſay, perhaps, I had very little to do, and that ſo ſolemn and ſerious a Preface, ill became ſo foul a Subject; but let what will be ſaid, I can't help communicating my Sentiments, but will endeavour to wrap 'em up in as cleanly a manner, as the dirtineſs of the Theme will admit.
    • 1776, “Chap. XVI. Of Assault.”, in Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, transl., A Code of Gentoo Laws, or, Ordinations of the Pundits, […], London: [s.n.], →OCLC, section I (Of Assaults, and of Preparation to Assault), page 223:
      If a Man throws upon a Woman's body, from the Navel upwards to beneath the Neck, any Spue, or Urine, or Ordure, or Semen, the Magiſtrate ſhall fine him One Hundred and Twenty Puns of Cowries.
    • 1843, “Public and Domestic Economy in France. [...] No. I.”, in The Magazine of Domestic Economy, and Family Review, volume I (New Series), London: Published by W[illiam] S[omerville] Orr & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 289–290:
      It seems at first sight a strange thing that Paris, with its apparently pure air, should be by no means so healthy a place to live in as London. [...] Another cause, not so sensible to the eye as to another organ, we have long believed to be, the universal accumulation of ordures in pestiferous cess-pools under or near almost every house. [...] The removal of these ordures is periodical, and must take place in the night. [...] From the cleaned-out dwellings the ordures are taken to the greatest laystall in the world, the Boyauteries of Montfaucon, famous for its filth, its carrion, and countless myriads of rats. Thence they are bought up by growers as manure for the land; [...]
    • 1882, “CLX.—Roll of the Presentments of the Mikletorn Jury. 1396, April 5. Presentments of the Great Tourn Taken before John de Plumptre, Mayor of the Town of Nottingham, on the Day and Year within-written.”, in W. Henry Stevenson, James Raine, editors, Records of the Borough of Nottingham: Being a Series of Extracts from the Archives of the Corporation of Nottingham […], volumes I (King Henry II. to King Richard II., 1155–1399), London: Bernard Quaritch, […]; Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: Thomas Forman & Sons, →OCLC, page 321:
      Also, they say that Margaret Samon, Nicholas Alastre, Thomas de Stanley, John Etwall, Richard Etwall, and William, son of Hugh Spicer, block up the common cavern of the aforesaid town on the northern side with ordure, weeds, and cinders, to the serious damage of the whole town aforesaid, etc.
    • 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter IX, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC, pages 103–104:
      Only Madame herself seeing Jacob out had about her that leer, that lewdness, that quake of the surface (visible in the eyes chiefly), which threatens to spill the whole bag of ordure, with difficulty held together, over the pavement. In short, something was wrong.
    • 1974 March 25, Victor Simon, Dehydration of Manure, US Patent 3,997,388 (PDF version), page 3, column 1:
      The invention consists in a method of dehydrating animal ordure wherein the ordure is caused to move along a path and subjected to the simultaneous action of a hot air flow, and of ultrasonic and/or microwave radiation during such movement.
    • 1989, Anthony Burgess, “Un”, in Any Old Iron, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Pocket Books, 1990, →ISBN, page 27:
      David Jones had seen death on a vast and public scale but never before domestically and at close quarters. This domestic death revolted him. [...] The bowels and bladder collapsed, sheets and mattress had to be burnt at the bottom of the back garden. The body, having vulgarly shed its ordures, now turned into an ordure itself.
  2. (by extension) Dirt, filth.
  3. (by extension) Something regarded as contaminating or perverting the morals; obscene material.

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

dirt, filth — see dirt,‎ filth

References edit

  1. ^ “ordūr(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 23 November 2018; “ordure”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “ordure, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2004.

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

French edit

Etymology edit

Inherited from Old French ord (“filthy”), from Latin horridus (“horrid”), + -ure.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

ordure f (plural ordures)

  1. garbage, refuse, rubbish
  2. dung, animal faeces
  3. (slang) obscenity, filthy material
  4. (slang, derogatory) a filthy person

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

Middle English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Middle French ordure and Anglo-Norman ordure, ordeur(e), ordor(e), ordour.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

ordure (plural ordures)

  1. ordure, excrement
    • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Parsons Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio cvi, verso, column 1:
      Of the hinder part of her buttockes it is ful horrible for to ſe, for certes in that parte of her body there as they purge her ſtynkynge ordure, that foul partie ſhew they to yͤ people proudly in diſpite of honeſtie, which honeſtie that Jeſu Christ and hys frendes obſerued to ſhewe in her life.
      Of the hinder part of her buttocks it is very horrible to see, as certainly in that part of her body there as they purge her stinking ordure, that foul part they show to the people proudly in spite of honesty, the honesty that Jesus Christ and his companions observed to show in her life.
  2. (by extension) filth, rubbish
  3. (figuratively) moral filth, iniquity

Descendants edit

  • English: ordure

References edit

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=ordure&oldid=75880428"