Old English ordel, ordal, "trial by physical test," literally "judgment, verdict," from Proto-Germanic noun uz-dailjam "a portioning out, judgment" (source also of Old Saxon urdeli, Old Frisian urdel, Dutch oordeel, German urteil* "judgment"), literally "that which is dealt out" (by the gods), from uzdailijan "to share out," related to Old English adælan "to deal out," from **uz‑ "out" + PIE dail-* "to divide," Northern Indo-European extended form of root da-* "to divide." Curiously absent in Middle English, and perhaps reborrowed 16c. from Medieval Latin or Middle French, which got it from Germanic.
The notion is of the kind of arduous physical test (such as walking blindfolded and barefoot between red-hot plowshares) that was believed to determine a person's guilt or innocence by immediate judgment of the deity, an ancient Teutonic mode of trial. English retains a more exact sense of the word; its cognates in German, etc., have been generalized.
Metaphoric extension to "anything which tests character or endurance" is attested from 1650s. The prefix or- survives in English only in this word, but was common in Old English and other Germanic languages (Gothic ur-, Old Norse or-, etc.) and originally was an adverb and preposition meaning "out."
古时英国法庭在处理疑案时是借助超自然的方式来进行裁决的，例如使嫌疑犯或被告手抱灼热铁块，或使其蒙住双眼赤着脚从几块灼热的犁铧中间走过，或使其将手浸于沸水中，倘若手脚丝毫无损则可定为无罪。
古人相信上帝会创造奇迹，保护无辜者使其不受伤害。这种神裁法古英语作ordal，其原义为“审判”或“判决”。古代条顿族及其他一些民族也曾采用类似判罪法。 13世纪初英国废除了除决斗以外的各种神裁法，但ordal一词却传了下来，拼写形式演变为ordeal，如今多用于引申义，表示“（对品格、忍耐力等的）严峻考验”、“磨难”或“煎熬”。