MUNDANE

[Dr. Goodword]

• mundane •

Pronunciation: mên-deyn

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Worldly, secular, as opposed to spiritual or heavenly. 2. Pedestrian, commonplace, trite, ordinary.

Notes: The adverb for this good adjective is mundanely and you have your choice of two nouns: the mundane mundaneness or the more elegant mundanity [mên-dæ-nê-ti], which some dictionaries no longer post.

In Play: The two meanings of today's Good Word are so close, it is often difficult to distinguish them in using the word, "You know, Farquhar, concerns about money should be far too mundane for a creative mind like you, so I'm going to ignore your request for a raise in your own best interest." Just remember, this is a good word to replace that utterly irksome utterance, blah, when we cannot think of anything else to say: "He gave a performance that was (not blah!) mundane."

Word History: Nothing could be more mundane than another borrowing from French, but that is exactly what we have today: Middle English made a virtual tracing of Middle French mondain, the descendant of Late Latin mundanus "a citizen of the world", from mundus "world, earth". The Latin verb, mundare, however, means "to wash, to clean". Are they related? Julius Pokorny, one of our greatest etymologists, thought so. He posited a PIE root, *meut- "moist, wet", which came to be used to refer to earth, which does best when moist, and from there to "world". He points to English mud, less the fickle [n], German Mund "mouth", with it, as further support of the original meaning.

[KatyBr]

While it is most certainly not ethereal, It, the word mondane, is not mondane either..
Check to see if your boss or coworkers actually know what it means.

Katy

[Flaminius]

If the Agorans can use this Forum in order to make each of them mundanus "a citizen of the world", it is not a mundane attempt at all.

Flam

[Iterman]

Meaning 2: Pedestrian.....! And I who thought it was a noun and the opposite to a motorist.
So you can say: Ah, it was only a pedestrian pedestrian I run over.

[KatyBr]

Meaning 2: Pedestrian.....! And I who thought it was a noun and the opposite to a motorist.
So you can say: Ah, it was only a pedestrian pedestrian I run over.

Katy

[Dr. Goodword]

So long it was noone everyone knows or someone dressed extraordinarily.

[M. Henri Day]

Interesting to note that French «mondain» retains its positive connotations, while its derivative «mondane» is most usually interpreted in a negative sense....

Henri

[Perry Lassiter]

Possibly the second word treated on the forum. Interesting to notice the consistent quality over 7+ years and the playful humor. I did wonder at the variant spelling "mondane" that showed up in two posts.