Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Everyday; commonplace.
- adjective Recurring daily. Used especially of attacks of malaria.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Daily; occurring or returning daily: as, a quotidian fever.
- noun Something that returns or is expected every day; specifically, in medicine, a fever whose paroxysms return every day.
- noun A cleric or church officer who does daily duty.
- noun Payment given for such duty.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Occurring or returning daily.
- noun Anything returning daily; especially (Med.), an intermittent fever or ague which returns every day.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective found in the ordinary course of events
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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English landscape, Austen offers a sort of test case that asks how the sensibility endorsed by the eighteenth-century novel fares in quotidian England.
Money, Matrimony, and Memory: Secondary Heroines in Radcliffe, Austen, and Cooper 2006
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I never heard the word quotidian in this sense, and I imagined it to be a word of Dr. Johnson's own fabrication; but I have since found it in
Life of Johnson Boswell, James, 1740-1795 1887
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I never heard the word quotidian in this sense, and I imagined it to be a word of Dr Johnson's own fabrication; but I have since found it in Young's
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. James Boswell 1767
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Austen’s heroines ask readers to choose between two versions of English identity: the familiar heroine of sensibility, who is comically out of place in quotidian England, or a pragmatic heroine of sense, who is capable of navigating the changing class structure of early nineteenth-century England.
Money, Matrimony, and Memory: Secondary Heroines in Radcliffe, Austen, and Cooper 2006
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I never heard the word quotidian in this sense, and I imagined it to be a word of Dr Johnson’s own fabrication; but
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These (sung, but not high, Masses), are the Masses that are called quotidianæ in the Missal.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913
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The laid-back tone of the show is the same as ever: Big Hollywood events are sparsely interspersed with the monotony of the quotidian even if the quotidian is a high roller's.
The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed LYNN CROSBIE 2011
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The quotidian is the daily, the ordinary existence, the "what happens anyway".
Walking Turcot Yards neath 2010
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It means "daily bread," but somehow "quotidian" seems right for Seinfeld, 52, a guy whose entire career is built on his bemused study of everyday life.
Jerry Seinfeld 2007
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Under his expert hand, the Wiener Philharmoniker, apt to phone it in for something as "quotidian" as Mozart's 40th, shines and sparkles with the swank and swagger only it has.
Archive 2007-01-01 Patrick J. Smith 2007
quotato commented on the word quotidian
Oh no! My wordie name is quotato---sounds like word quotidian
December 5, 2006
abraxaszugzwang commented on the word quotidian
Dude, quotato's awesome. No worries.
January 22, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word quotidian
Every time I see this word go by on the front page--which is kinda frequently--I start reciting the Lord's Prayer in Latin: "Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimite nobis debita nostra, et dimitimus debitoribus nostrus, et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo, Amen."
I have no idea if any of that is right (it's been quite a while). But "quotidian" definitely makes me recite the last part in my head. And then I get kinda mad because I don't really remember it that well. It's like an earworm, but you don't know all the words. Aaagh!
November 11, 2007
reesetee commented on the word quotidian
Wow, I haven't thought of that in years. But you're right--it is like an earworm.
Oh, great....
November 11, 2007
tree commented on the word quotidian
i love that in medicine it denotes the malignant form of malaria. so it's everyday stuff or DEATHLY MOSQUITO BITES.
May 8, 2008
scete commented on the word quotidian
Beauty is not quotidian, it is a rare delight
December 4, 2008
nycanthro commented on the word quotidian
There's a bakery/restaurant near my campus with decent coffee and overpriced, delicious pastries and breads called Le Pain Quotidien, which, of course is from the French meaning "daily beating." Reminds me of my childhood in the 1980's New York City school system.
March 2, 2009
Louises commented on the word quotidian
'We know that we abide with quarks and constellations in a reality unknowable by us in a degree, we will never be able to calculate but reality all the same, the stuff and the matrix of our supposedly qotidian existence'. The Absence of Mind by Marilynne Robinson 2010.
April 20, 2013
mohitanand commented on the word quotidian
adjective: found in the ordinary course of events
Phil gets so involved thinking about Aristotle's arguments that he totally forgets quotidian concerns, such as exercising and eating regularly.
October 19, 2016