orientation
/ˌɔːriənˈteɪʃən/noun
The process of finding one’s position, direction, or bearings
From Latin, via Old French orient (east).
Lineage
orient
-ation
The story
Picture an ancient observer watching the sun climb over the horizon: that rising light was Latin oriēns, and it supplied the ancestor of orient. Medieval French turned that sunrise word into orient, meaning the east and, more broadly, the mysterious lands east of Europe. English first used orientation in 1832 for physically arranging something to face a chosen direction; by 1870, people were using it for finding their mental bearings among unfamiliar ideas. The ending -ation is an old action-making device, the same linguistic machinery visible in civilization and democratization. So orientation began with a compass and a sunrise, then quietly became the word for helping a bewildered newcomer figure out where they are—geographically, intellectually, or socially.
Modern usage
Sexual preference or sexual identity, usually in the phrase “sexual orientation”
- Heard in
- sexuality · internet slang
Words from the same roots
orient · Latin, via Old French, ‘east; rising sun; to rise’
Deriveddisorient, reorient, oriental, occident, origin, aboriginal
-ation · Latin, via Old French, ‘action, process, or result’
Derivedcivilization, democratization, starvation, defenestration, assimilation
Sources
- Etymonlineorientation, orient, -ation, preference, austral, direction, attitude
- Urban Dictionaryorientation
- Wiktionaryorientation, orient, -ation