Daily; occurring or returning daily: as, a quotidian fever. Common and quotidian infirmities that so necessarily attend me. Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, ii. 7.Like the human body, with a quotidian life, a periodical recurrence of ebbing and flowing tides. Gladstone, Might of Right, p. 173.
Something that returns or is expected every day; specifically, in medicine, a fever whose paroxysms return every day. He seems to have the quotidian of love upon him. Shak., As you Like it, iii. 2. 383.A disposition which to his he finds will never cement, a quotidian of sorrow and discontent in his house. Milton, Divorce, ii. 16.
I never heard the word quotidian in this sense, and I imagined it to be a word of Dr. Johnson's own fabrication; but I have since found it in
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Life of Johnson
Swift asked the older man.
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Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
'Neither have they, but I heard.
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The Hawk Eternal
Middle English cotidien, from Old French, from Latin quōtīdiānus, from quōtīdiē, each day : quot, how many, as many as; see kwo- in Indo-European roots + diē, ablative of diēs, day; see dyeu- in Indo-European roots.
from Middle Englishcotidien, from Old Frenchquotidien, cotidien, Frenchquotidien = Provencalcotidian, cotedian = Spanishcotidiano = PortugueseItalianquotidiano, from Latinquotidianus, cottidianus, daily, from quotidie, cottidie, cotidie, daily, from quot, as many as, + dies, day: see dial.