everyday, n. and a.
(ˈɛvərɪ-, ˈɛvrɪdeɪ, ˌɛvrɪˈdeɪ)
[Combination of every and day.]
A. n. † a. Each day in continued succession. b. dial. A week-day, as opposed to Sunday.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. ii. ii. 33 O þou man wher fore makest þou me gilty by þine euerydayes pleynynges. 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. s.v., Oh! I keeps they for Sundays, I don' put 'em on 'pon everydays. Mod. Sc. Ask him for an every-day, he cannot come on a Sunday. Sunday and every-day are alike to him. |
B. attrib., passing into adj.
1. Of or pertaining to every day, daily; also, pertaining alike to Sundays and week-days.
| 1647 J. Saltmarsh Spark. Glory (1847) 170 His fulness lives in an eternal every-day sabbath, while some live in little more than..one day in the week. 1648 Hammond Wks. IV. (1684) 508 An every-day care for the drying up of the great fountain of Leprosie in the Heart. 1796 Lamb Lett. to Coleridge in Life ii. 16, I am heartily sick of the every-day scenes of life. 1804 Bp. Lincoln in G. Rose Diaries (1860) II. 85, I do not doubt but you want constant every-day debaters. 1857 Livingstone Trav. Introd. 6 note, Make religion the every-day business of your life. 1861 F. Nightingale Nursing 95 The everyday management of a sick room. 1880 Muirhead tr. Instit. Gaius 591 Voluntary sale of a slave was of everyday occurrence. 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. s.v., An ‘every-day horse’ is one that can work all the week long..not like a Parson's horse, which can only work on Sundays. |
2. Of articles of dress: Worn on ordinary days or week-days, as opposed to Sundays or high-days. Also fig. every-day self.
| 1632 Massinger City Madam i. i, Few great ladies going to a masque..outshine our's [fashions] in their every-day habits. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 215 The every-day ribbands were coloured. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop xiii, Mr. Quilp invested himself in his every-day garments. 1883 H. H. Kane in Harper's Mag. Nov. 945/2, I seemed to have left my every-day self in the..vestibule. |
3. To be met with every day; common, ordinary. Of persons and their attributes: Commonplace, mediocre, inferior. Also every-day-world adj.
| a 1763 Shenstone (T.), Things of common concern..make no slight impression on everyday minds. 1781 Johnson L.P., Akenside, This was no every-day writer. 1791 Boswell Johnson (1831) IV. 19 Every-day knowledge had the most of his just praise. 1817 Coleridge Biog. 202 Persons of no every-day powers and acquirements. 1845 J. H. Newman Ess. Developm. 249 Her every-day name..was the Catholic Church. 1847 Alb. Smith Chr. Tadpole xxxii. (1879) 277 [She] had shrunk from the every-day people in the parlour of the public-house. 1862 Burton Bk. Hunter 5 The vulgar everyday-world way of putting the idea. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. viii. 287 Treason is spoken of as an everyday matter. 1871 Mad. Simple's Invest. iv, People who have a cook..ought not to dine like everyday folks. |
Hence everydayness.
| 1840 Lowell Love Poet. Wks. (1879) 82 The every-dayness of this work-day world. 1876 Mrs. Whitney Sights & Ins. xxiv, Nice, jolly every-dayness. 1862 Temple Bar V. 263 The every-dayness, the common-placeness of life oppressed me. 1892 Sat. Rev. 26 Mar. 364/1 The everydayness of this nineteenth century. 1904 M. E. Durham Through Lands of Serb 289 Their dull ‘everydayness’. 1954 L. MacNeice Autumn Sequel 19 The need for everydayness. |