All the dictionaries and etymology sites I've checked say that the word ordnance, meaning weapons and ammunition, was derived from ordinance, which means a regulation or law. Etymonline says that the clipped variation was established by the 17th century. It has always looked like a misspelling to me, and a popular military-themed TV show, which presumably has a technical advisor, even got it wrong.
But none of the sites I've checked explain how this clipped variation occurred. Does anyone know?
Best Answer
The spelling without the [i] was present in Middle English, and then a more general shift towards dropping the [i] occurs in the 17th and 18th centuries. Samuel Johnson treats the older spelling as an archaism.
Middle English
Here are common forms of the Middle English word ordinaunce (Middle English Dictionary):
With multiple forms (in bold) the vowel between [d] and [n] disappears. These are not the most common spelling, but they show what is to come - for some uses of ordinance/ordnance, speakers and writers were already dropping the middle vowel.
By the 15th century, ordinaunce referred to artillery provisions and other military equipment (def 11 of the MED entry).
Early Lexicons: Ordinance
In early lexicons, the word is at first recorded as ordinance and other variants. Here is Thomas Elyot in the Bibliotheca Eliotae (1542):
And John Withals in A Short Dictionary for Young Beginners (1556):
This is frequent in lexicons even to the 18th century. Here is Nathan Bailey, Univesal Etymological English Dictionary (1737):
Early Lexicons: Shifting to Ordnance
The spelling begins to shift in lexicons at the start of the 17th century. Jacob Cornelissoon van Neck's book The Journal or Daily Register of the Voyage from Amsterdam the First Day of March, 1598 (1601) contains a glossary translating from an East Indian language with the following:
Randle Cotgrave uses the spelling repeatedly in his A Dictionary of the French and English Tongues (1611), whenever a French word could use it. For instance:
It occurs very frequently thereafter, especially in reference to armaments and occasionally in other uses. Back to Nathan Bailey (1737), he uses ordnance as well, in a context very close to that he uses ordinance (artillery):
A generation later, Samuel Johnson includes a note to his entry for ordnance that either tries to kill the older spelling or notes its obsolescence, depending on your perspective on his Dictionary of the English Language (1755):
Note that he also includes an entry for ordinance, which he distinguishes semantically while also noting the change in spelling when it comes to artillery:
So by this time, the shift is essentially complete. By the time Noah Webster gets around to his dictionary (1828), this is all he has to say on ordnance:
Ordinance has its own entry and has effectively become its own word form. As Johnson suggested, the spelling differs for distinction, or to distinguish the two words and meanings.