† ordn.

Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian ord point, place, beginning (West Frisian oarde place, oard a quarter of a particular denomination of money or measure), Middle Dutch ort , oort , ord point, edge, corner, piece of land, a quarter of a particular denomination of money or measure (Dutch oord place), Old Saxon ord point, spear (Middle Low German ōrt , oort point, edge, place, beginning, a quarter of a particular denomination of money or measure), Old High German ort point, edge (Middle High German ort point, edge, corner, place, beginning, a quarter of a particular denomination of money or measure, German Ort place), Old Icelandic oddr point of a weapon, front, leader (Icelandic oddur point, tip), Old Swedish odder , udder point (Swedish udd ), Danish od point, probably < the same Indo-European base as Albanian usht unripe spike of corn, and perhaps (with different root extension) Lithuanian usnis thistle. Compare odd n.¹, odd n.²Old Swedish ordh , orth corner, a quarter of a particular denomination of money or measure (Swedish ort place, a quarter of a particular denomination of money or measure), early modern Danish ort place, a quarter of a particular denomination of money or measure, are probably borrowings from Middle Low German. The sense ‘a quarter of a particular denomination of money or measure’ found in some languages apparently arises from the pointed shape of the segments formed when a coin is divided into four crosswise. The base is a common element in Germanic personal names, compare Old English Ordbyrht , Ordgār , etc., Frankish Ortger , Ortleib , etc., Old Icelandic Oddgeirr , Oddrún , Þóroddr , etc., Gepid Usdibadus . With the pairing of ord and edge in Old English poetry (compare quots. OE¹, OE¹ at sense 1) compare Old Icelandic oddr ok egg point and edge. The early Scandinavian word represented by Old Icelandic oddr was also borrowed into Middle English as odde (one isolated attestation) in sense ‘point of a nail’:1451–1500 (c1400) Vision of Tundale 916 Her tayles were full of smal broddes, As weþerhokes were þe oddes. In β. forms probably influenced by word n.