a. and sb. Forms: 4, 6 cotidien, (4 -ene); 4–6 cotidian, -ane, (5 -yan, cotydian, -yan, 6 -yane); 4– quotidian, (6 -ane, -ene, quotydian). [a. OF. cotidien, -ian (13th c., mod.F. quotidien), or ad. L. cot-, quotīdiān-us, f. cot-, quotīdiē every day, daily.]
A. adj. 1. Of things, acts, etc.: Of or pertaining to every day; daily.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 62. Ȝif þei preien, þat is … comunly for offrynge & cotidian distribucion.
1406. Hoccleve, La Male Regle, 25. My grief and bisy smert cotidian.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), V. 307. He made the preface quotidian.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 274 b/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.
a. 1711. 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 sb.; cf. QUARTAN.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 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., 41 b. Of the dayly ague or fever quotidiane.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 37. In chronical diseases, as Quartane and Quotidian diseases.
1718. Pope, Lett. to R. Digby, 31 March. That spirit … which I take to be as familiar to you as a quotidian ague.
1876. trans. 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. a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 177 b. 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.
2. Of persons: Performing some act, or sustaining some character, daily. rare.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 152. Sa that he be wount … to be cotidiane at Goddis service.
1618. Bolton, Florus, I. xi. (1636), 30–1. The Æqui, and Volscians were…, as I may call them, quotidian enemies.
1714. J. Walker, Suffer. Clery, Pref. 37. The weekly writers (and therefore much more the diurnal or quotidian hirelings).
3. Of an everyday character; ordinary, commonplace, trivial.
1461–83. Liber Niger, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 61. Not [to] trouble the seyde soveraynes … in smalle accustomed and cotidyan thinges and questions.
1534. Whitinton, Tullyes Offices, I. (1540), 59. Tully treateth of two maner of speches, the one after the rhetoricyen eloquent, the other quotydian and vulgare.
1625. W. B., True School War, 11. So ordinarie and so quotidian procurements of wantonnesse.
1665. J. Spencer, Vulg. Proph., 53. Common and quotidian thoughts are beneath the grace of a Verse.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Economy, I. 149. To scorn quotidian scenes, to spurn the bliss Of vulgar minds.
1816. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., XLII. 423. This (adds Wieland) is very quotidian scepticism.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. II. viii. Pastry-cooks, coffee-sellers, milkmen sing out their trivial quotidian cries.
B. sb. 1. A quotidian fever or ague.
a. 1400. Stockh. Medical MS., ii. 50, in Anglia, XVIII. 309. Þat coueryth þe cotidyan mythilyke.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 2401. Cotidien, ne quarteyne, It is not so ful of peyne.
c. 1491. Chast. Goddes Chyld., 21 The fyrst feuere is callid a cotydian.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, cxxxvii. 50 b. In Englyshe it is named a quotidiane the which doth infest a man every daye.
1663. Boyle, Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos., II. V. ix. 211. I myself was strangely cured of a violent quotidian.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 324. Tertians sometimes redouble their Paroxysms, so as to appear like Quotidians.
1822–34. Good’s Stud. Med. (ed. 4), I. 607. The quotidian has a longer interval than the tertian.
fig. 1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, IX. xxxviii. (1554), 217. Trusting … your liberal largesse Of thys quotidian shall releuen me.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 383. He seemes to haue the Quotidian of Loue vpon him.
1643. Milton, Divorce, II. xvi. Wks. (1847), 150/1. A quotidian of sorrow and discontent in his house.
2. A daily allowance or portion. rare.
1828. Caroline Fry, Scripture Reader’s Guide, vii. 87. The Psalms are … more mechanically chosen for our quotidian of reading than any other part of Scripture.
1894. C. M. Church, Chapt. Early Hist. Church of Wells. Bishop Jocelin … increases the quotidians to all members of the Church of St. Andrew in Wells.
So † Quotidianary a. Obs. rare–1.
1719. Free-thinker, No. 139, ¶ 3. Quotidianary Words and Actions … do not rise above the Powers of Mechanism.
