workaday

workaday

English

Alternative forms

• workyday (obsolete)

Etymology

Circa 1200, Middle English werkedei, from Old Norse virkr dagr (“working day”). Cognate to later workday; see work and day. Used in adjective sense from 16th century.[1] By surface analysis, work +‎ a +‎ day.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɜː(ɹ)kədeɪ/

Adjective

workaday (comparative more workaday, superlative most workaday)

1. Suitable for everyday use.
2. Mundane or commonplace.
   • 1916 December 29, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, OCLC 1881984, page 124:

     A retreat, my dear boys, signifies a withdrawal for a while from the cares of our life, the cares of this workaday world, in order to examine the state of our conscience, to reflect on the mysteries of holy religion and to understand better why we are here in this world."

   • 2021 February 6, Rachel Monroe, “Ultra-fast Fashion Is Eating the World”, in The Atlantic‎:

     But then something started to shift—the Burning Man aesthetic was creeping into the workaday world; festival culture went mainstream.

Related terms

• workday

Translations

suitable for everyday use

Bulgarian: делничен (bg) (delničen), всекидневен (bg) (vsekidneven) Chinese: Mandarin: 日常 (zh) (rìcháng), 日用 (zh) (rìyòng) Finnish: arkinen (fi) French: please add this translation if you can German: Alltags- (de) Hindi: please add this translation if you can

mundane or commonplace

Bulgarian: обикновен (bg) (obiknoven) Chinese: Mandarin: 平凡 (zh) (píngfán), 普通 (zh) (pǔtōng) Finnish: arkinen (fi) French: please add this translation if you can German: Alltags- (de), alltäglich (de) Hindi: please add this translation if you can

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “workaday”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.