mundane

From Middle English mondeyne, from Old French mondain, from Late Latin mundanus, from Latin mundus (“world”). Compare Danish mondæn.

• IPA^(key): /mʌnˈdeɪn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪn

mundane (comparative mundaner, superlative mundanest)

1. Worldly, earthly, profane, vulgar as opposed to heavenly.

   Synonym: worldly

   Antonyms: heavenly, arcane

2. Pertaining to the Universe, cosmos or physical reality, as opposed to the spiritual world.
   • 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogue 2):

     Amongst mundane bodies, six there are that do perpetually move, and they are the six Planets; of the rest, that is, of the Earth, Sun, and fixed Stars, it is disputable which of them moveth, and which stands still.

3. Ordinary; not new.

   Synonyms: banal, boring, commonplace, everyday, routine, workaday, jejune, pedestrian; see also Thesaurus:boring, Thesaurus:common

4. Tedious; repetitive and boring.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:boring

• submundane
• supermundane
• transmundane
• ultramundane

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “mundane”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

mundane (plural mundanes)

1. An unremarkable, ordinary human being.
2. (slang, derogatory, in various subcultures) A person considered to be "normal", part of the mainstream culture, outside the subculture, not part of the elite group.
   • 1959 December 1, Ron Bennett, Skyrack‎^[1], number 10:

     THE LIVERPOOL PARTY at Pat and Frank Milnes’ celebrated both the Gunpowder Plot and the Liverpool Club’s 400th and something meeting. Two mundane and non-fan friends of the hosts - women, too - played brag all night and Norman Weedall disappeared at 3 a.m.

   • 1989 Spring, Lawrence Person, “Fear and Loathing in New Orleans: A Savage Journey Into the Heart of American Fandom”, in Nova Express, volume 2, number 3 (whole number #7), page 10:

     The Demon Barber and I played Shock the Mundanes. The door would open up and we would start a sentence in mid-imaginary conversation, like—‘Of course, they never found the body.’

   • 1996, Angel of Death, “furries vs. mundanes”, in alt.fan.furry (Usenet):

     Some people just think your ^[sic] a sicko or something for enjoying the art. I know that alot ^[sic] of the time, I would rather see some nice nude furrygirls instead of pictures of nude mundanes.

3. (derogatory, satanism) A person who is not a Satanist.
4. (fandom slang, as "the mundane") The world outside fandom; the normal, mainstream world.
   • 1966 November, Lee Hoffman, “Our Authors”, in Science-Fiction Five-Yearly‎^[2], number 4, page 35:

     Long famed in fandom, Mr. Bloch skyrocketed to prominence in the mundane when his autobiographical novel, PSYCHO, was made into a hit motion picture.

• (ordinary person): See Thesaurus:mundane
• (mainstream person): See Thesaurus:mainstreamer

• mundanely
• mundaneness
• mundanity

• mundane on Wikipedia.Wikipedia Article on the use of “mundane” as a derogatory term.

• unnamed

mundāne

1. vocative masculine singular of mundānus