MUNDANE
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 8:24 pm
• 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.
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.