quotidien

Forms

quotidien (feminine quotidienne, masculine plural quotidiens, feminine plural quotidiennes)^[1] Old French cotidian (about 1120) and cotidien (12th century); the spelling quotidien is an etymological remaking recorded before 1453, in Monstrelet.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin quotīdiānus (“daily, of every day”),^[4][2][5] a derivative of quotīdiē (“every day”),^[4][6] which is formed from quot (“how many”) and diēs (“day”).^[2][3] Wiktionary notes that this Latin form is a late spelling of Classical cottīdiānus.^[1] In familiar Latin the adjective also meant “ordinary, common”.^[2]

Cognate with Old Occitan cotidian, Catalan cotidià, Spanish cotidiano and Italian quotidiano.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as cotidian in the Oxford Psalter (first half of the 12th century), in pain cotidian “daily bread”, the phrase spread by the Lord's Prayer.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Doctors from Old French to the classical period spoke of fièvre quotidienne or simply la quotidienne, for a fever whose fits returned every day; the Roman de la Rose already has fievre cotidiane.^[2][4] The figurative sense “what one does or deals with every day” is recorded before 1613.^[2]

Journal quotidien (1820, Hugo) gave way to the noun un quotidien “a daily paper” (1830, Fourier), helped by newspapers named La Quotidienne (the first in 1792) and Le Quotidien.^[4][2] The pejorative sense “banal, monotonous” was developed in the 19th century (Balzac, 1836), also as the noun le quotidien “everyday life”; the phrase au quotidien is recent.^[4][2] English took the word from Old French as coitidian in the mid-14th century, now quotidian.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Pain cotidian appears in the Oxford Psalter.^[4][3]
• 1225–1230 – Fievre cotidiane in the Roman de la Rose.^[4]
• 1421 – The adverb quotidiennement is recorded.^[2]
• Before 1453 – The spelling quotidien appears in Monstrelet.^[2][3]
• Before 1613 – Figurative use of pain quotidien, in Mathurin Régnier.^[3]
• 1820 – Journal quotidien in Hugo's correspondence.^[4]
• 1830 – Fourier uses quotidien as a noun for a daily newspaper.^[4][2]
• 1834 – The derivative quotidienneté is recorded.^[2]
• 1836 – Balzac uses it for what is banal and humdrum.^[4][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. daily, happening or done every day: sa promenade quotidienne, le pain quotidien.^[9][4]
2. Everyday, ordinary, humdrum.^[4][1]
3. (medicine, dated) Of a fever: returning every day.^[7][2]

Noun

1. A daily newspaper.^[9][1]
2. Le quotidien: everyday life, what belongs to ordinary days.^[9][1]
3. Au quotidien: day to day, every day.^[9][1]

Word family

• quotidiennement
• quotidienneté

Related words

• jour
• Latin quotīdiānus
• English quotidian

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert