Ordained

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɔɹˈdeɪnd/

Definitions

1. To have received a formal commission or appointment to perform sacred duties or rites in a religious setting
2. Officially invested with the authority to carry out religious ceremonies and duties
3. Granted a recognized status to serve in a formal religious capacity through a ritual process

Etymology: "Ordained" is the past form of "ordain," and the verb's core idea is still visible in it: Latin "ordinare" meant "to arrange in order," from "ordo," "order," a word for rank, row, or sequence. The Latin sense was about putting things into their proper place, and that tidy-arrangement idea carried into Old French "ordiner" and then into Middle English "ordeynen." The religious sense grew from that same notion of assigning people to their proper roles. To ordain someone was to put them into a fixed position within the church, so that their authority to perform sacred duties was formally settled. The word's secular and sacred uses therefore share one root: making something fit a set place in a larger scheme. "Ordinate" is a doublet of "ordain," meaning the two words descend from the same Latin source by different routes, one through French and one more directly into English.

Synonyms: appointed, consecrated, established, designated, instituted

Antonyms: disqualified, dismissed, removed, unappointed, deposed