On the origin and usage of odinarnyj, binarnyj and similar adjectives

In this paper long-standing discussions on the etymology of the word odinárnyj ‘single’
are summed up: we describe the history of the adjective, provide the earliest known
textual occurrences, clarify the chronology of the folk-etymological reanalysis of the
word. Initially the form odinárnyj emerged as a result of dissimilation within the adjective
ordinárnyj ‘ordinary’, then it was influenced by the numeral odín ‘1’ and separated
from the original lexeme. We discuss borrowed adjectives ending in -árnyj and semantically
corresponding to numerals (binárnyj ‘binary’, ternárnyj ‘ternary’ and many others)
and show chronological data on the usage of these words up till the beginning of the
20th century.
The second part of the paper deals with synchronic issues; it contains a list of words
ending in -(n)árny, which semantically correspond to numerals and are built in accordance
with a productive Modern Russian derivational pattern, the existence of which has
earlier been denied in linguistic literature. It concerns adjectives whose first element is Greek
(like tetranárnyj and pentanárnyj) or Slavic (for example, četyr’oxnárnyj or p’atiárnyj);
some pseudo-Latinisms like unárnyj or kvarternárnyj are described separately. We also
briefly discuss phenomena of morphemics and morphonology observed in those words
and propose a tentative mechanism of the formation of this derivational pattern.