Why does “extraordinary” mean “beyond what is ordinary or usual” when the two words that create it, “extra” and “ordinary” would suggest something that is very, very ordinary? Extra ordinary.
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
absolutangel64 
oh my bad about the txt woman..it went to the wrong sylvia i have two sylvia on my phone. how are u woman? r u still in the states or in hawaii? i haven’t heard from u forevers. hope things are good :0)
I guess when making the word someone thought of adding something extra to ordinary but didn’t like the word “ordinaryextra.”
I may be talking out of my butt but it seems to depend whether the “extra” is a separate word or not. Extra as separate word always mean “more of” whatever word follows it … extra ketchup, extra cheese, extra nice, extra chewy, extra sexy etc.. I may be wrong but I can’t seem to think of any counterexample =S.
However, the “extra” would have the meaning of “outside or beyond” as part of a word like extraordinary or extraterrestrial .. I think it goes back to the “ex” root which means “out of” and strictly speaking the greek meaning of “extra” is “outside, beyond, in addition to” thus words like exile or exogenous all have “outside” connotations.
Therefore in my opinion, extraordinary have the correct meaning if we trace the root of the word back.