prosaic

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English

WOTD – 16 April 2009

Etymology

From Middle French prosaïque, from Medieval Latin prosaicus (“in prose”), from Latin prosa (“prose”), from prorsus (“straightforward, in prose”), from Old Latin provorsus (“straight ahead”), from pro- (“forward”) + vorsus (“turned”), from vertō (“to turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, to bend”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /pɹəʊˈzeɪ.ɪk/
  • (US) IPA(key): /pɹoʊˈzeɪ.ɪk/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪɪk

Adjective

prosaic (comparative more prosaic, superlative most prosaic)

  1. Pertaining to or having the characteristics of prose.
    Antonym: poetic
    The tenor of Eliot's prosaic work differs greatly from that of his poetry.
  2. (of writing or speaking) Straightforward; matter-of-fact; lacking the feeling or elegance of poetry.
    I was simply making the prosaic point that we are running late.
  3. (main usage, usually of writing or speaking but also figurative) Overly plain, simple or commonplace, to the point of being boring.
    Synonyms: humdrum, dull, unimaginative; see also Thesaurus:boring
    His account of the incident was so prosaic that I nodded off while reading it.
    She lived a prosaic life.
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in The History of Pendennis. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
      Our people are the most prosaic in the world, but the most faithful; and with curious reverence we keep up and transmit, from generation to generation, the superstition of what we call the education of a gentleman.
    • 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 6, in The Whisperer in Darkness:
      Their steepness and abruptness were even greater than I had imagined from hearsay, and suggested nothing in common with the prosaic objective world we know.
    • 2017 June 3, Daniel Taylor, “Real Madrid win Champions League as Cristiano Ronaldo double defeats Juv”, in The Guardian (London)‎:
      Ultimately, though, the more prosaic goals carried the greater significance in this contest. Madrid have managed only one clean sheet on their way to winning this competition.

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Translations

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Catalan

Adjective

prosaic (feminine prosaica, masculine plural prosaics, feminine plural prosaiques)

  1. prosaic

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