Quotidian
adjective
- Recurring every day
- Commonplace and unexciting
noun
- A fever which returns every day
- A daily stipend previously given to select Anglican clergymen
- A classification characterized by commonplace, mundane things
Usage
Hit the snooze button; roll out of bed and brush your teeth; wash, if you have time; slip into tan khakis; grab a piece of toast; and out the door to wait in the same line at Starbucks with everybody else. Nothing out of the ordinary: just the same old quotidian routine.
Quotidian describes those things that happen every day. Sometimes they are those things that are so regular and commonplace that there's just no thrill in them anymore. Nevertheless, you'll likely do them again tomorrow out of habit or routine, just like yesterday—and they'll be just as boring tomorrow. Quotidian always refers to daily recurrence, but it usually comes with the negative connotation of boredom.
Historically, quotidian has been used in medical contexts to refer to symptoms that come back every day. Though returning symptoms are less than thrilling, the implication is not about emotions—it's purely clinical. More often than not, it implies a recurring fever, like quotidian malaria.
If you run across quotidian in reference to church history, it's not talking about boring sermons. Certain Anglican clergyman used to be given a daily allowance. Since it was doled out every day, naturally they called it a quotidian. Wish you could have talked your parents into a quotidian of your own?
In more recent years, quotidian has been used to refer to trivial, mundane things in an abstract way, as if quotidian was a classification or category. It is used much the same way as the word "best" is used in the term "the best of the best." In social contexts, quotidian bears negative connotations because it implies inferiority; however, in artistic contexts, it tends to have a positive connotation because everybody can relate to commonplace things.
Example: What started as the scenic route to work has become quite quotidian.
Example: "I'm afraid I have a quotidian," said Allan. "It's the same fever every day!"
Example: It may not be much, but his quotidian helps the Parson with his daily needs.
Example: If we rise above the quotidian we can live a richer life!
Origin
Quotidian was first used in English around the 1300's, and can be traced through the Anglo-Norman variants cotidien and cotidian, back to the Latin word quotidianus. It has always carried the same definition, because it comes from the simple Latin root words quot ("as many as") and dies ("day").
Derivative Words
Quotidianly: The adverbial form of quotidian refers to an action or quality being commonplace or happening daily.
Example: Always tidy, Margaret quotidianly made her bed.
Similar Words
Quotinoctian: Not much different than quotidian, quotinoctian simply refers to nightly occurrences.
Literary Reference
Patricia Zavella's I'm Neither Here Nor There: Mexicans' Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty
In Zavella's title, quotidian means recurring daily.
From William Shakespeare's King Henry the Fifth:
Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian, that it is lamentable to behold.
Here, quotidian refers to a fever that recurs daily.
From Adam Zagajewski's and Clare Cavanagh's A Defense of Ardor:
It is a web of human experience holding room for heroism and saints, for madness, tragedy, and reason—as well as laughter, of course, and the quotidian, since the quotidian, too, is beautiful.
Here, quotidian refers to mundane, commonplace things as a category or classification.
In Pop Culture
From Oxford Union Society's People Who Shape Our World with John Mayer:
Mayer: The lens—and the sphere—of your own life always feels casual and quotidian—I got in "quotidian!" I got it in. US weekly doesn't put "quotidian" in when you say it. (YouTube)
Here Mayer is explaining how the events of our lives tend to strike us as ordinary and mundane in the moment.
Mnemonic
- Quotidian routines won't be interesting!
- Quotidian: Your daily quota of mundane.
Tags
Latin, medicine, church history, Anglicanism
Bring out the linguist in you! What is your own interpretation of quotidian. Did you use quotidian in a game? Provide an example sentence or a literary quote.