Word of the Day

: January 27, 2007

quotidian

adjective kwoh-TID-ee-un

What It Means

1 : occurring every day

2 : belonging to each day : everyday

3 : commonplace, ordinary

quotidian in Context

As an employee, Fiona is gifted at solving the difficult problems that arise from time to time, but she is often careless about the quotidian responsibilities of her job.

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.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.