At one time, if something was “inordinate,” it did not conform to the expected or desired order of things. That sense, synonymous with disorderly or unregulated, is now archaic, but it offers a hint as to the origins of inordinate. The word traces back to the Latin verb ordinare, meaning “to arrange,” combined with the negative prefix in-. Ordinare is also the ancestor of such English words as coordination, ordain, ordination, and subordinate. The Latin root is a derivative of the noun ordo, meaning “order” or “arrangement,” from which the English order and its derivatives originate.

Examples

“The goalie in hockey, like a quarterback in football, has an inordinate amount of influence on a game.” — Dave Hyde, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 31 July 2020

“… we had arrived with our first-ever outdoor grill. However, it was not yet an assembled first-ever outdoor grill. The uncles, assigned to grill duty, gathered in serious conference to study an array of parts. They were intent on putting these parts together, a task that will take them an inordinate amount of time. They were not practiced in construction.” — Ruth Charney, The Recorder (Greenfield, Massachusetts), 27 Aug. 2020