1894 Brewer’s / O / Ordinary (An)
A public dinner where each guest pays his quota; a table dʹhôte.
“ʹTis almost dinner; I know they stay for you at the ordinary.”—Beaumont and Fletcher: Scornful Lady, iv. 1.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.