Humanities
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Word of the Day : October 19, 2020
quotidian \kwoh-TID-ee-un\ adjective
Definition
1 : occurring every day
2 a : belonging to each day : everyday
b : commonplace, ordinary
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 derives from a Latin word that 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 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.
Aired October 19, 2020
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Comments
Michael L
I know this word from learning French, but I had no idea that it was also a word in English. I'm surprised that he did not mention that it comes from French. In French, this is a very common word. I've never heard it used before in English.
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