sb. and a. Forms: α. 3 (Orm.) werrkedaȝȝ, werkedei, 4–5 werkeday(e. β. 6– workyday, 7– worky- -day (6–7 workie-, 7 worki-, workey-). γ. 9 workaday, work-a-day. [ME. werkeday (3 syllables), of uncertain origin: possibly f. gen. pl. (OE. weorca) of WORK sb. + DAY sb.1, but perh. more probably f. directly on these with assimilation to the trisyllabic sunnedei Sunday, messedei MASS-DAY. The type workyday is due to the influence of HOLIDAY, and workaday presumably to that of NOWADAY(S.]
A. sb. A day on which work is ordinarily done (distinguished from holiday); a work-day, working-day. Obs. or dial.
α. c. 1200. Ormin, 11315. Forr ȝure wuke gifeþþ ȝuw Aȝȝ sexe werrkedaȝȝess.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 18. Valleð to þer eorðe ȝif hit is werke dei, mit te Gloria Patri.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, I. v. (Skeat), l. 104. After the seven werkedays of travayle.
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 4971. In þe longe ȝere be werke daye[s] I-nowe.
1426. Audelay, Poems, 80. On the werkeday ȝif that thou be About thi labor treuly.
a. 1450. Myrc, Par. Pr. (1902), 893. For, a-pon þe werkeday, Men be so bysy in vche way.
β. 1550. in Strype, Eccl. Mem. (1721), II. I. xxvii. 218. That divers preachers within your diocess … do preach as well the worky days as the holy days.
1566. Drant, Horace, Sat., II. F 5. On workyday I neuer coulde be taken With better meate … then roots or chimnye bacon.
1598–9. B. Jonson, Case is Altered, IV. iii. Fellow Onion for thy sake I finish this workiday.
1603. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 700. Sondaies, Holydaies, and workie days.
1653. Flecknoe, Misc., 127. He is one that makes alwayes Holy day for others, and worky-day for himself by taking upon him all the businesse.
1725. Bourne, Antiq. Vulg., xii. 116. We find a great Deference paid to Saturday Afternoon, above the other worky Days of the Week.
1789. H. Walpole, Lett. to Mrs. H. More, 20 July. What the common people call a worky-day.
1860. W. White, All round Wrekin, xvii. 170. If our teacher ain’t ashamed to stop and shake hands with us, o’ worky-days.
γ. 1840. Dickens, Old Cur. Shop, xlix. In the very clothes that he wore on work-a-days.
1883. Mrs. H. M. Plunkett, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 238/2. Life was an unbroken work-a-day.
b. attrib. passing into adj. (cf. WORKING DAY). Belonging to or characteristic of a work-day or its occupations; characterized by a regular succession or round of tasks and employments; of ordinary humdrum everyday life: freq. in phr. this workaday world.
β. 1554. Bury Wills (Camden), 146. My worky day cassocke.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., I. ii. 55. Prythee tel her but a worky day Fortune.
1672. Dryden, Assignation, III. i. With such a Workiday-rough-hewn face too!
1751. Miss Talbot, Lett. to Mrs. Carter, 27 Sept. (1809), II. 53. Oh this nasty worky-day world!
1877. F. Jacox, Scripture Prov., xlix. 545. In the common law of facts in this worky-day world.
γ. 1802. Mrs. Radcliffe, Gaston de Blondeville, Posth. Wks. 1826, I. 6. The plain reality of this work-a-day world.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xviii. The less of real, hard, struggling work-a-day life there is in that romance, the better.
1857. Musgrave, Pilgr. Dauphiné, I. i. 8. Their work-a-day dress is a coarse brown or blue serge surtout.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, xvii. 284. We cannot long indulge in day-dreams in this workaday world.
1874. P. Russell, Leaves Journalist’s Note-bk., 53. Goswell-road is, as all my readers know, one of the most work-a-day of London thoroughfares.
1898. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, xii. 128. He did not attempt to understand the lighter side of life, but took it seriously as a work-a-day matter.
