"old order" - Word of the Day from the OED

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old order, n.

DRAFT ENTRY Sept. 2009

Brit. /l(d) d/, U.S. /old rdr/  Forms: also with capital initials.  [< OLD adj. + ORDER n. Compare later NEW ORDER n.] 

    1. Usu. with the. An old or outmoded method or system of doing things; spec. an old regime or government. Sometimes more fully old order of things. Cf. NEW ORDER n.

1533 T. MORE Debellacyon Salem & Bizance II. xv. f. xc^v, For than were yt good to spare theim and and speke them fayre, and suffer theym tyll they wolde waxe fewer of them selfe, and than after that, vse agaynste theym the lawis & the old order again. a1618 W. RALEIGH Cabinet-council (1658) xxv. 116 There is nothing more difficult, doubtful and dangerous then to attempt Innovation: for he that taketh in hand an enterprize of such quality, maketh all those his Enemies which lived well under the old order. 1651 R. BAXTER Plain Script. Proof 120 The old order of Confirmation by Bishops, which was to be done upon Profession of the Faith. 1797 Pennsylvania Gaz. 13 Dec., Multitudes of poor and disaffected men..flock to the standard of Buonaparte; some from hatred to the old order of things, and more for the sake of obtaining subsistence. 1842 TENNYSON Morte d'Arthur in Poems (new ed.) II. 15 The old order changeth, yielding place to new. 1928 C. H. DODD Authority of Bible ix. 196 Alexander's conquests had brought the old order to an end. There was a mingling of cultures, a cross-fertilization of East and West. 1999 S. RUSHDIE Ground beneath her Feet (2000) xvi. 501 Everybody gets the new rolling-news stations, so we've all watched the earthquakes together, the old order falling, live, as it happens.

    2. The order of the Mennonite church which most strictly observes the oldest forms of worship and preserves the most conservative codes of behaviour, dress, etc. Chiefly in the names of various sects of the Mennonite church in the United States; freq. attrib. in Old Order Amish, Old Order Brethren, Old Order Mennonite, etc.

[1903 E. W. HOCKER in Era Mag. 358/2 The existing divisions of the church include the Bruederhof Mennonites, the Old Amish Mennonites,..and the Defenseless Mennonites.] 1909 C. H. SMITH Mennonites of Amer. viii. 241 The Old Order furnish an interesting relic of the customs which prevailed among the Amish several generations ago. 1909 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang., Old Order Brethren, see River Brethren. 1909 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. at River Brethren, The Old Order of Yorker Brethren, chiefly in York County, Pa. 1920 C. H. SMITH Mennonites xii. 218 What was..once a necessity in Europe became an established custom in America, still perpetuated among the Old Order Amish. 1980 J. A. HOSTETLER Amish Society (ed. 3) v. 98 The horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites, who speak the dialect, dress, and farm like the Amish. 1992 Amer. Speech 67 77 Assimilatory processes have created changes..in the Old Order Amish and the Old Order Mennonites.

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