English

Adjective

mundane ‎(comparative mundaner, superlative mundanest)

1. Worldly, earthly, profane, vulgar as opposed to heavenly.
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.
4. Tedious; repetitive and boring.

Synonyms

• (of the earth): worldly
• (ordinary, tedious): banal, boring, commonplace, everyday, routine, workaday, jejune

Antonyms

• heavenly
• arcane

Translations

References

• J[ohn] A. Simpson and E[dward] S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0-19-861186-8.

Noun

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, Bennett, Ron, Skyrack, 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, Person, Lawrence, “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 (discussion on Internet newsgroup alt.fan.furry)

     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. (fandom slang) The world outside fandom; the normal, mainstream world.
   • 1966 November, Hoffman, Lee, “Our Authors”, in Science-Fiction Five-Yearly, 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.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• mundanely
• mundaneness
• mundanity

See also

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

Anagrams

• unnamed

Latin

Adjective

mundāne

1. vocative masculine singular of mundānus