Mar

29

Word Of The Week: March 29, 2008

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

March 29, 2008 |

This week’s word of the week is mundane. As an adjective it usually means belonging to the earthly world, but it’s also commonly used to mean plain, ordinary, dull, prosaic, humdrum, or common. In an even more obscure usage, it’s a noun among science fiction and fantasy fans, who call a non-fan a “mundane”, and, at conventions or other gatherings, will refer to ordinary people being surprised at their fantastic costumes or bizarre behavior as “freaking the mundanes”.

Tracing the word’s origins takes us right back to the Latin mundus, meaning “world”. In Latin the word mundanus originated with Cicero, who used it to translate the Greek word cosmos1.jpg, which meant “citizen of the world”, and from which we get words like “cosmopolitan”.

Some readers have remarked that they love etymology, and I’ve even been asked by a few why I love etymology so much. My answer is that, when I use a word, it gives me a special feeling to know its history. Language is common to us all, it connects us all, both the present and the past. To use a word is to follow in direct lineage from all who precede us who have used the same word. Meanings may vary, they may even change, and yet they are living history. There’s nothing mundane about even the most common word.


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