everyday
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- every day (obsolete)
- every-day
- every day's
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English everidayes, every daies, every dayes (“everyday, daily, continual, constant”, adjective, literally “every day's”), equivalent to every + day.
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
everyday (not comparable)
- appropriate for ordinary use, rather than for special occasions
- 1906, Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children, Chapter 4: The engine-burglar,
- When they had gone, Bobbie put on her everyday frock, and went down to the railway.
- 1906, Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children, Chapter 4: The engine-burglar,
- commonplace, ordinary
- 2010, Malcolm Knox, The Monthly, April 2010, Issue 55, The Monthly Ptd Ltd, page 42:
- Although it is an everyday virus, there is something about influenza that inspires awe.
- 2010, Malcolm Knox, The Monthly, April 2010, Issue 55, The Monthly Ptd Ltd, page 42:
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
appropriate for ordinary use, rather than for special occasions
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commonplace, ordinary
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AdverbEdit
everyday
- Misspelling of every day. (compare everywhere, everyway, etc.).
Usage notesEdit
When describing the frequency of an action denoted by a verb, it is considered correct to separate the individual words: every hour, every day, every week, etc.
- Influenza is considered an everyday virus because it infects people every day.
NounEdit
everyday (uncountable)
- (obsolete) Literally every day in succession, or every day but Sunday. [14th–19th c.]
- (rare) the ordinary or routine day or occasion
- Putting away the tableware for everyday, a chore which is part of the everyday.
- 2003, Robert Pack, Belief and Uncertainty in the Poetry of Robert Frost (Middlebury College press)[1], UPNE, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 110:
- Then you came in. I heard your rumbling voice
Out in the kitchen , and I don't know why ,
But I went near to see with my own eyes .
You could sit there with the stains on your shoes
Of the fresh earth from your own baby's grave
And talk about your everyday concerns. […]
ReferencesEdit
- James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Everyday”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume III (D–E), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 345, column 1.