Ordinations

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of officially appointing someone to a religious office or position
2. A ceremony that confers the authority and responsibilities of church leadership roles
3. The process through which individuals are consecrated or designated for sacred duties within a religious community

Etymology: "Ordinations" is the plural of "ordination", a noun for the formal act of conferring holy orders or a church appointment. The base word came into English from Middle French "ordination", which in turn descended from Old French "ordinacion" and the Latin "ordinatio". That Latin noun meant an arranging or putting in order, and it comes from "ordinare", "to arrange, set in order", built on "ordo" (genitive "ordinis"), meaning row, rank or series. The Latin sense of arrangement is the thread that connects the word to its religious use. To ordain someone was to set them into a fixed rank within the church, placing them in an ordered position in its hierarchy, and the plural form simply refers to multiple such acts of placing people into rank. The core idea of putting something into its proper row or order has stayed constant from Latin through French into English.