Etymologically
Log in

cotidie

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 05:03. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔˈtiː.di.eː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [koˈtiː.di.e][1]

Forms

cotīdiē (not comparable)[1] Also spelled cottīdiē, the commoner spelling of the OLD and of early inscriptions.[2][1][3] The spelling quotīdiē is less correct.[4][2]

Etymology

It is a compound of quot (“how many”) or a form ⟨*quottī⟩ from quotus (“which in number”), and diēs (“day”), but some details are unclear.[2][1] Wiktionary reports de Vaan's view that the ⟨ī⟩ is due to postrīdiē, and notes that the spelling with ⟨tt⟩ appears earlier in inscriptions, with no clear explanation.[1] The TLL takes it as perhaps a locative of an adjective meaning “which in number”, first “on whatever day”.[3] Roman grammarians argued over it: Quintilian calls the spelling ⟨quotīdiē⟩, as if from ⟨quot diēbus⟩, a frigid pedantry, while Velius Longus and others derive it not from ⟨quotō diē⟩ but from ⟨continentī diē⟩.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL date it from Plautus.[5][3] Terence has a dialogue: did he go to Bacchis? Every day.[4]

Semantic evolution

It means every day, daily, and with words of growing or lessening day by day: Cicero writes to Atticus that he sends ever shorter letters every day, as he suspects more each day that Atticus has left for Epirus.[2][4] The declamations ascribed to Quintilian use it of every night.[4] The TLL finds it absent from Lucilius, Catullus, Horace and all the dactylic poets except an inscription and Commodian.[3] Manuscripts have both cottīdiē and cotīdiē, and quotīdiē rarely, mostly in later authors; inscriptions have cottīdiē, as the Lex Iulia municipalis and the edict of Diocletian, and cotīdiē.[3] It lives on in Portuguese cotio.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[5][3]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of daily visits.[4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of daily letters.[4]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian criticises the spelling quotīdiē.[2][3]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Every day, daily; day by day.[2][4][1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill