Make Your Point > Archived Issues > QUOTIDIAN

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pronounce QUOTIDIAN: Say it "kwo TID ee yun." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: As we check out the word quotidian--literally "which for the day?" or "what stuff for the day?"--let's recall some loosely related terms: 1. French for "I know not what," the four-word term ___________quoi means "some attractive quality that's hard to explain." 2. Latin for "do what you're doing," the three-word term a___quod_____ means "focus on the task at hand." (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)  definition: The Latin quotus means "how many?" or "what, in order or number?" (Quotus gave us the word "quote," which originally meant to mark up a book with chapter numbers.) And the Latin dies means "day." Put quotus and dies together and you can see how "quotidian" has Latin bits meaning "which, in order, for the day?". "Quotidian" first appeared in English around 1393, when it described fevers and other symptoms that appeared once a day, or once every twenty-four hours.  "Quotidian" then grew to mean "daily: happening every day," as well as "everyday: normal, common, routine, ordinary." It's this last meaning that we use these days. In other words, quotidian things are those that have to do with regular, routine, everyday life. grammatical bits: Part of speech: Adjective: "these quotidian chores;" "Her comments were quotidian." Other forms:  None are common. Sometimes we use "quotidian" as a noun: "The poem is about the spiritual as well as the quotidian." There's an adverb, "quotidianly," technically meaning "daily, happening each day," but with nothing stopping you from using it to mean "regularly, routinely, in a dull or everyday manner." I suggest using it only for a laugh, for when you need a ridiculously highfalutin word. "Ever the regal creature, Chloe granted me the right to pet her quotidianly, only in the evenings, only as long as the sink water stayed on for her." And there's another noun, "quotidianism:" a concern with only whatever is regular, routine, and everyday (instead of, say, whatever is spiritual or philosophical). how to use it: "Quotidian" is the formal, semi-common word you can pick when you want to call attention to just how normal and regular something is, especially when it surprises you. "Do you think Barack Obama is at his house doing something quotidian, like sweeping up clumps of dust in the kitchen, but only because some of it got stuck to his toe?" You might talk about quotidian tasks, chores, duties, demands, and responsibilities; or about quotidian concerns, comments, observations, and conversations; or about quotidian routines, conversations, experiences, and lives. As you can see, the tone of "quotidian" is often negative, suggesting that things are boring, not special, not deeply meaningful. But the tone doesn't have to be so negative. Here's the Washington Post: "quotidian pleasures such as warm feet, warm fires and, obviously, tea." I find plenty of pleasures in the quotidian, and I hope you do, too. Here's Annie Dillard: "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing." examples: "[Mary Ward Brown] published a handful of early stories, but eventually suspended her literary aspirations to face the quotidian demands of farm life and motherhood."     — Bruce Weber, New York Times, 22 May 2013 "Sometimes the emotional fuel [provided by art] is just laughter and distraction from the quotidian struggles of life in hard times and perhaps even existential peril."     — Chauncey Devega, Salon, 5 September 2020 has this page helped you understand "quotidian"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "quotidian" without saying "ho-hum" or "mundane." try it out: In a book review for the LA Times, David L. Ulin wrote, "We see Lena's most mundane and intimate interactions: making dinner for her daughters, riding the bus, wrestling with her self-loathing, her self-doubt... We empathize with her desire for transcendence and her understanding that transcendence is another illusion, that the quotidian is all we get." Talk about what he means by saying that "the quotidian is all we get." Do you agree? Why or why not? Could some particular quotidian thing in your life actually be transcendent, too? If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game for September is "Four Quick Ways to Wreck a Sentence: From Professionally Polished to Strategically Sabotaged." In each issue this month, compare two versions of a description of a popular movie. See if you can determine which is the real one (the professionally polished version from IMDB.com) and which is the fake one (the strategically sabotaged version from yours truly). The fake one will demonstrate one of the four quick ways to wreck a sentence, listed below. So, for an extra challenge, see if you can identify which of these four has been employed in the act of sabotage. Here are the four quick ways to wreck a sentence: 1. Make the details fuzzier or fewer. 2. Jumble the order of information, forcing the reader to slow down or back up. 3. Ruin the rhythm by breaking a pattern in a pair or list. 4. Make the whole thing a chore to read by swapping in a subject that's long or abstract, and/or a verb that's vague or passive. Make it even worse by pushing the subject and the verb really far away from each other. (Naturally, if you invert each item above, you get Four Quick Ways to Strengthen a Sentence.) Here's an example: Version A: "The Shawshank Redemption: Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency." Version B: "The Shawshank Redemption: Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding eventual redemption and solace through acts of common decency." Which is real, and which is fake? And in the fake one, which of the four quick ways to wreck a sentence have I employed? Answer: A is real; B is fake. The fake was created with #2, "Jumble the order of information." Readers find it easier to process information when it's in a logical or chronological order, and when they can start with the shorter, simpler words and phrases before moving on to the longer, more complex ones. Here, it's better to write "solace and eventual redemption" instead of "eventual redemption and solace," for three reasons. One, the characters in the story probably achieve solace before they achieve redemption; two, solace as a concept is less intense and less abstract than redemption; and three, "solace" is many syllables shorter than "eventual redemption." Try this one today: Version A: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: A criminal pleads insanity and goes to a mental institution, where he makes waves with the oppressive nurse and gets the support of the scared patients." Version B: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: A criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients." Which is real, and which is fake? And in the fake one, which of the four quick ways to wreck a sentence have I employed? To see the answers, scroll all the way down. review this word: 1. A few near opposites of QUOTIDIAN are A. NEW and EFFICIENT. B. TRADITIONAL and EXPECTED. C. EXTRAORDINARY and TRANSCENDENTAL. 2. I assure you that the original meaning still stands, but according to Buzzfeed, "_____" once meant "quotidian" and now means "_____." A. spicy .. increasingly unpalatable chicken wings B. basic .. white girls who like coffee and sweatpants and wouldn't let you sit with them C. per my last email .. I cannot believe you are forcing me to repeat this to you Answers to review questions: 1. C 2. B Answers to the game questions: A is fake; B is real. The fake was created with #4, "Make the whole thing a chore to read... by swapping in a verb that's vague or passive." The fake version falls flat with "goes," "makes," and "gets," while the real version comes alive with "admitted," "rebels," and "rallies." a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.