what does ordinary mean?

I decided to adapt ORDINARY to write a short piece of literature and would like to base my ideas on its meaning to help me write it.
I have looked up the meaning and this is what came up

Quote:

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With no special or distinctive features; normal.
Noun:
What is commonplace or standard.
Synonyms:
common - usual - regular - normal - habitual - customary

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My first impression was:
Why so many words to describe it?

and then my thoughts were:
Isn't it what is ordinary that makes us all tick meaning makes us act because what is common is popular?


What are your thoughts?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cacian

I decided to adapt ORDINARY to write a short piece of literature and would like to base my ideas on its meaning to help me write it.
I have looked up the meaning and this is what came up



My first impression was:
Why so many words to describe it?

and then my thoughts were:
Isn't it what is ordinary that makes us all tick meaning makes us act because what is common is popular?


What are your thoughts?

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I think you put the cart before the horse. It think, in some cases, people take the same approach to doing something and that makes it common. Not people taking that approach on account of it being common.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by papayahed

I think you put the cart before the horse. It think, in some cases, people take the same approach to doing something and that makes it common. Not people taking that approach on account of it being common.

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Hi papyahed I find this expression quite tricky because I always understood it as this
that one brings the cart out first then goe back and brings along the horse after the assemble them together it would make sense because whilst it is easy to put a cart anywhere and leave it there ( no one would ran away with a cart it is too heavy) it is not with a horse for it might ride off.
So in this very order yes you do put the cart before the horse.
But
Now I have realised its meaning. It think it is the word BEFORE that did that.
BEFORE can mean a sequence and it can mean a position.
I understood it as in a sequence and not a position.
Does that make sense?

Now back to what you said isn't that similar to starting a trend as in fashion?
That is exactly what someone does they start something which then becomes a trend/norm adopted by billions of us.
So really ordinary is not that obvious but common is right?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cacian

Hi papyahed I find this expression quite tricky because I always understood it as this
that one brings the cart out first then goe back and brings along the horse after the assemble them together it would make sense because whilst it is easy to put a cart anywhere and leave it there ( no one would ran away with a cart it is too heavy) it is not with a horse for it might ride off.
So in this very order yes you do put the cart before the horse.
But
Now I have realised its meaning. It think it is the word BEFORE that did that.
BEFORE can mean a sequence and it can mean a position.
I understood it as in a sequence and not a position.
Does that make sense?

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Not really. Someone told me that carts are very heavy, so you need the horses to move them therefor even in sequence you get the horse before the cart.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by papayahed

Not really. Someone told me that carts are very heavy, so you need the horses to move them therefor even in sequence you get the horse before the cart.

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Do you mean something like this? :p

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ien.jpg/220px-

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cacian

Do you mean something like this? :p

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ien.jpg/220px-

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They can do such wonders with photoshop!

I've always treated unoriginal as a synonym... something I don't desire at all. I think there's a quote (Oscar Wilde?) that's along the lines of the worst insult you can say to a man is he's unoriginal.