Quotidian definition

A. adj. 1. a. Of things, acts, etc.: Of or pertaining to every day; daily. c1380 WYCLIF Wks. (1880) 62 if ei preien, at is..comunly for offrynge & cotidian distribucion. 1406 HOCCLEVE La Male Regle 25 My grief and bisy smert cotidian. 1432-50 tr. Higden (Rolls) V. 307 He made the preface quotidian. 1483 CAXTON Gold. Leg. 274b/2 [A] cotidyan fornays is oure tonge humayne. 1513 BRADSHAW St. Werburge I. xx. 5 The cotydyane labours her body to chastyce. 1550 VERON Godly Sayings (ed. Daniel) 55 Though your sinnes be daily and quotidian, let not them be deadly. 1603 HARSNET Pop. Impost. xxiii. 158 A Quotidian imaginarie oblation of a Sacrifice. 1635 QUARLES Embl. I. xi. (1718) 45 And brazen lungs belch forth quotidian fire. a1711 KEN Hymns Evang. Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 29 Thence our Quotidian Raptures were begun. 1849 LONGFELLOW Kavanagh xi. 53 Five cats..to receive their quotidian morning's meal. 1861 THACKERAY Philip xvi, Every man who wishes to succeed at the bar..must know the quotidian history of his country. b. spec. of an intermittent fever or ague, recurring every day. Cf. B. 1. In early use placed after the n.; cf. QUARTAN. 1340 HAMPOLE Pr. Consc. 2987 Som for pride..Sal haf..a fever cotidiene. 1390 GOWER Conf. II. 142 A Fievere it is cotidian, Which every day wol come aboute. 1530 PALSGR. 209/1 Cotidien axes, fievre quotidienne. 1561 HOLLYBUSH Hom. Apoth. 41b, Of the dayly ague or fever quotidiane. 1656 RIDGLEY Pract. Physick 37 In chronical diseases, as Quartane and Quotidian diseases. 1718 POPE Let. to R. Digby 31 Mar., That spirit..which I take to be as familiar to you as a quotidian ague. 1876 tr. Wagner's Gen. Pathol. (ed. 6) 17 If the attack of fever returns every day we have what is called a Quotidian rhythm or type. fig. a1548 HALL Chron., Hen. VI 177b, This noble realme..shall never be unbuckeled from her quotidian fever. 1663 COWLEY Verses & Ess., Obscurity, We expose our life to a Quotidian Ague of frigid impertinencies. transf. 1723 COWPER in Ld. Campbell Chancellors (1857) V. cxvii. 343 John's drunkenness seems a tertian..except that on Friday it proved quotidian.