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.
not content with the quotidian quarrels that other couples had, they had rows that shook the entire neighborhood plagued by a quotidian coughing fit, the result of years of smoking
Recent Examples on the WebLess tourist trodden than neighboring Tuscany, the verdant hills of Umbria, Italy, are filled with quiet hamlets; one of the region’s newest hotels, Vocabolo Moscatelli, immerses guests in the quotidian rhythms of the countryside.New York Times, 29 July 2022 Those legends made what was disastrous seem quotidian, unremarkable.New York Times, 12 May 2022 The rise of this particular bar reveals a lot about the state of natural wine in San Francisco, showing how this subculture has evolved from something extreme and exclusive to something quotidian and inclusive. Esther Mobley, San Francisco Chronicle, 6 May 2022 Compared to the daring outside, the Hyundai’s interior style seems deliberately quotidian. Dan Neil, WSJ, 5 May 2022 So far, so fairy tale, but the story drifts back into the quotidian details of village life. Ron Charles, Washington Post, 26 Nov. 2019 Many of the 17th-century artist’s paintings center on women engaging in quotidian tasks such as reading, writing and playing musical instruments. Theresa Machemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Apr. 2020 These characters' supernatural talents are presented in an utterly matter-of-fact manner, in a film which is solidly grounded in quotidian detail. Neil Young, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Jan. 2020 The mundane and quotidian memories of smells, ephemera, or small gestures heightened the intensity of the allegations. Treva B. Lindsey, Billboard, 22 Mar. 2019 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English cotidian, from Anglo-French, from Latin quotidianus, cotidianus, from quotidie every day, from quot (as) many as + dies day — more at deity