In my Business Writing class this morning (3/5/20), we discussed a fascinating fact: There is, without any formal rule to regulate it, a very defined order in which adjectives, when compounded, appear prior to a noun. If any or all of these are present, this is the order in which we all intuitively organize them:
Quantity
Quality
Size
Shape
Condition
Age
Color
Pattern
Origin
Material
For example, we would say, "I have three beautiful big round ripe red Fuji apples.
I love language. "The chief aim of order," as Chesterton pointed out, "is to make room for good things to run wild." God has infused order into the world in such a compelling fashion that even in circumstances like this where a phenomenon exists outside of a formal governing body determining it to be so, order manifests itself and imposes its demands upon our speaking in such a manner as to demonstrably create unity of opinion. Why should adjectives be arranged in this way? And better yet, why do we all know it? Because as Anne of Green Gables would say, "God is in His heaven. All is right with the world."
1 Corinthians 14:33
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
God is not disorganized and does not produce disorder, but organization and order. He is not a God who is chaos, but peace. He is not anarchy, but orderly.
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