ordinance

Definition

A local law, passed by e.g. a city.

Etymology

From Middle English ordinaunce (ca. 1300), from Old French ordenance (“decree, command”) (modern French ordonnance), from Medieval Latin ordinantia, from ordinans, the present participle of ordino (“put in order”) (whence ordain). Doublet of ordonnance.

Example Sentences

• "Enactive. Expositive. / Art. 57. XIII 2. The Registrative, or say Recordative: exercised, by the arrangements and operations, by which, in conformity to corresponding ordinances and mandates, the accounts, given at different periods by the exercise of the statistic function, are kept in contiguity, and in a regular series, for the purpose of reference and comparison."
• "According to the weatherperson, spring arrived in Hartford, Conn., on Monday, March 20 at 6:34 p.m. But gay people here didn't need a weatherperson to feel the gust of fresh air at a hearing on the proposed gay rights ordinance before the City Council that night at 7:30."
• "Alderman Richard Mell then pushed through antipeddling ordinances in the 33rd and 47th wards."