Word of the Day

: January 31, 2024

quotidian

adjective kwoh-TID-ee-un

What It Means

Something described as quotidian occurs every day or occurs routinely or typically. More broadly, quotidian is used as a synonym of commonplace and ordinary.

// The article offers suggestions on how to gamify quotidian tasks.

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quotidian in Context

"Ultimately, the beauty creators offered a behind-the-scenes look at how these top glam squads find quotidian ways to keep their creativity thriving." — Eda Yu, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Nov. 2023

Did You Know?

In William 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." The Bard's use doesn't make it clear that quotidian comes from a Latin word, quotidie, which means "every day." But as odd as it may seem, his use of quotidian is just a short semantic step away from the "daily" adjective sense. Some fevers come and go but occur daily; in medical use, these are called "quotidian fevers" or simply "quotidians." Poor Orlando is afflicted with such a "fever" of love.