prosaic
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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
[edit]Adjective
[edit]prosaic (comparative more prosaic, superlative most prosaic)
- Pertaining to or having the characteristics of prose.
- Antonym: poetic
- The tenor of Eliot's prosaic work differs greatly from that of his poetry.
- (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.
- (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. […], volume (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)[1]:
- 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.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]pertaining to or having the characteristics of prose
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straightforward; matter-of-fact; lacking the feeling or elegance of poetry
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overly plain or simple, to the point of being boring; humdrum
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Anagrams
[edit]Catalan
[edit]Adjective
[edit]prosaic (feminine prosaica, masculine plural prosaics, feminine plural prosaiques)
Related terms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “prosaic” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “prosaic”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
- “prosaic” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “prosaic” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Old Latin
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪɪk
- Rhymes:English/eɪɪk/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan adjectives