quotidian

comparative more quotidian · superlative most quotidian

1. Happening every day; daily.First known use 15th c.

   I know that the government's daily idea to solve the country's law and order problem is not meant to be taken too seriously, but every now and again I am moved to raise an eyebrow at the quotidian suggestion.

   2000 July 10, Marcel Berlins, “Jack plays the blame game”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 09 May 2014

   Synonyms: circadian, diurnal, circadian, daily, diurnal, hemeral, nychthemeral, per diem

2. Having the characteristics of something which can be seen, experienced, etc, every day or very commonly.First known use 15th c.

   Tragedy demanded verse, not the quotidian prose of comedy, and verse usually supplied some form of end rhyme.

   2002, Russ McDonald, edited by McEachern, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy, page 28

   3 more examples

   The story or the painting would serve to connect the part with the whole, the event with the myth, the quotidian with the sacred.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 102

   Grids are used for such quotidian items as stationery, business cards, mailing labels, hang tags, instruction manuals, etc.

   2010, Steven Heller, Eddie S Glaude, Becoming a Graphic Designer

   They are finding the remains of ovens for smelting copper and preparing food as well as quotidian objects such as mats and storage pots.

   2015, Alexander Stille, “The World’s Oldest Papyrus and What It Can Tell Us About the Great Pyramids”, in Smithsonian Magazine, volume October 2015, Smithsonian Institution

   Synonyms: commonplace, everyday, mundane, normal, ordinary, average, basic, bog-standard

3. medicineRecurring every twenty-four hours or (more generally) daily (of symptoms, etc).First known use 14th c.

   Quotidian periodicity we find in greater or less degree in nearly all fevers, particularly in fevers associated with suppuration.

   1898, Patrick Manson, Tropical Diseases, page 104

   1 more example

   I regret that the effect of these statements is a denial of the observation of initial quotidian paroxysms following artificial inoculation.

   1941, American Journal of Tropical Medicine, volume XXI

   Synonyms: circadian, diurnal

4. Something which is considered humdrum or dull.

   His life took on a quotidian humdrum.

   2004, Larry Haeg, In Gatsby's Shadow: The Story of Charles Macomb Flandrau

   2 more examples

   Their careers, although often high paying, prestigious and meaningful (at least to an outsider looking in), had become boring, quotidian, dull, unstimulating, and repetitive.

   2008, Ingrid E. Cummings, The Vigorous Mind

   The difference here is that the protagonists in this collection are, for the most part, at the end of their lives, and so the news of familial drama and divorce and the cocktail parties, barbecues and casual wooings of quotidian life in suburbia is given retrospectively, wistfully, presented in the larger context as memories of lost moments and lost opportunities.

   2009 June 7, T. Coraghessan Boyle, “The Road Home”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2021

   Synonyms: boring, dull, mundane, unsatisfying, unstimulating, banal, basic, mindless

plural quotidians

1. archaichistoricalmedicineA fever which recurs every day; quotidian malaria.First known use 14th c.

   If I could meet that Fancie-monger, I would giue him some good counsel, for he seemes to haue the Quotidian of Loue vpon him.

   1623, William Shakespeare, As You Like It

   1 more example

   I myself was, about two years since, strangely cured of a violent quotidian, which all the wonted method of physick had not so much abated, by applying to my wrists a mixture of two handfuls of bay-salt, two handfuls of the freshest English hops, and a quarter of a pound of blue currants […]

   1671, Robnert Boyle, Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy, Part II

2. historicalAnglicanismA daily allowance formerly paid to certain members of the clergy.First known use 16th c.
3. usuallywith definite articleCommonplace or mundane things regarded as a class.First known use 20th c.

   She does the same thing as any parent worth their salt, and gets rambunctious youngsters engaged in daily drudgeries by refashioning the quotidian as adventure.

   2018 December 12, Charles Bramesco, “A Spoonful of Nostalgia Helps the Calculated Mary Poppins Returns Go Down”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 24 May 2019

   2 more examples

   More than opposable thumbs and the invention of the flinthead axe, it was our ability to transcend the quotidian by weaving tales of awe and wonder that set us apart from the beasts.

   2005 September 21, Lucy Mangan, “Has Lost lost the plot?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 01 Jan 2023

   Zamenhof realized early on that one of the best ways of bringing Esperanto to life is through translated literature – through rendering in Esperanto events and ideas, conversations and encounters, that have yet to occur in real life in that language. Literary creation has always broadened our experience beyond the quotidian; it can also broaden a language.

   2008, Humphrey Tonkin, “Preface”, in Geoffrey Sutton, Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto 1887–2007, Mondial, →ISBN, page 2