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"Ordinance" is legislation. "Ordnance" is the explosive stuff. Old ordinance can also be troublesome, but is rarely deadly.
by crackercrews 5y ago
"Ordinance" is legislation. "Ordnance" is the explosive stuff. Old ordinance can also be troublesome, but is rarely deadly.
- abrowne 5y agoAt least in jurisdictions that have abolished capital punishment.
- scrollaway 5y agoI'm not GP but as a non-native speaker, thanks for the tip! I never realized :)
- jkubicek 5y agoI'm a native english speaker, and I also never realized those were two different words.
- dcminter 5y agoThe classic usage for Brits is the 'ordnance survey' (maps) which originate in the need for accurate maps when calculating angles for artillery! Also, while I'm a native speaker who does know this one I think it's obscure enough that most don't. In fact I suspect it's obscure enough that the mis-spelling will replace it eventually anyway. Incidentally the products of magnet fishing often turn up on Reddit's /r/whatisthisthing sub. You also see quite a few munitions. Often enough, in fact, that they have a munitions bot that warns people to contact the authorities (and not, e.g., twist the end to see if it comes off...)
- tshaddox 5y agoAlso, at least in American English, “ordinance” is not a mass noun. An ordinance is a piece of legislation. So I would say “an old ordinance can also be troublesome…”
- KMag 5y agoAhh, a fellow soul feeling the burden of knowing the difference between mass and count nouns.
- celticninja 5y agoAnd just to confuse things a little more we have in the UK: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/ https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/ Which is not a survey of explosive devices.
- leoedin 5y agoBut it is (or was, originally, when it was named) a survey for directing military ordnance.
- celticninja 5y agoDirecting military ordnance in the 1700s.
- nicoburns 5y agoHuh, and I've been pronouncing that ordinance. I guess those two words are pretty similar.