Quotidian

Word of the Day

quotidian \ kwoh-TID-ee-un \ adjective or noun

as an adjective:
1: occurring every day  (a quotidian report)

(a quotidian report)

2a: belonging to each day
2b: everyday
(quotidian needs)

3: commonplace, ordinary

(paintings of no more than quotidian artistry)

 

4. (of a fever, ague, etc.) characterized by paroxysms that recur daily.

as a noun :

5. something recurring daily.

 

6. a quotidian fever or ague.

EXAMPLES

After weeks on the road, it felt good to be back to our quotidian routines.

"Some of Bach's music is a prime example of how even works of genius can be destroyed in the wrong hands. The Cello Suites were deemed quotidian exercises until Pablo Casals revealed their beauty."
— Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times, January 2, 2015

DID YOU KNOW?In Shakespeare's play As You Like It, the character Rosalind observes that Orlando, who has been running about in the woods carving her name on trees and hanging love poems on branches, "seems to have the quotidian of love upon him." Shakespeare's use doesn't make it clear that quotidian derives from a Latin word that means "every day." But as odd as it may seem, Shakespeare's use of quotidian is just a short semantic step away from the "daily" adjective sense. Some fevers occur intermittently—sometimes daily. The phrase quotidian fever and the noun quotidian have long been used for such recurring maladies. Poor Orlando is simply afflicted with such a "fever" of love.

Latin

 

(1300-50) from the Latin quotīdiānus, cottīdiānus daily, equivalent to cottīdi(ē) every day (adv.) (*quot(t)ī a locative form akin to quot however many occur, every + diē, ablative of diēs day; cf. meridian) + -ānus -an; replacing Middle English cotidien
from Old French cotidian (Modern French quotidien), from Latin quotidianus "daily," from Latin quotus "how many? which in order or number?" (see quote (v.)) + dies "day"). Meaning "ordinary, commonplace, trivial" is from mid-15c.