Definition
A Latin adverb meaning "daily" or "every day." An archaic variant spelling of *quotidie*, the classical Latin form. Encountered in older legal texts, writs, and ecclesiastical records where the term signals a daily occurrence, obligation, or computation — such as daily penalties, daily rents, or the running of time in procedural contexts.
Why It Matters in Research
The principal research hazard with *cottidie* is simple non-recognition: a researcher unfamiliar with the variant spelling may fail to connect it to *quotidie* and its derivatives, missing the temporal meaning embedded in a document. In medieval and early modern legal manuscripts, spelling standardization was inconsistent, and Latinate terms commonly appeared in regional or scribal variants. If you encounter *cottidie* in a primary source — a writ, a church court record, a rent roll, or a formulary — treat it as interchangeable with *quotidie* and search under both forms. Similarly, the adjectival form *cottidianus* (for *quotidianus*) may appear modifying nouns such as stipend, service, or penalty. Corpus researchers working in ecclesiastical law, land records, or early common law pleadings should index both spellings when conducting full-text searches.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary identifies *cottidie* as an old form of *quotidie* and *cottidianus* as a variant of *quotidianus*, citing the lexicographer Barnabé Brisson (*Brissonius*), whose *De Verborum Quae ad Jus Pertinent Significatione* was a standard reference for legal Latin. Burrill offers no independent substantive definition beyond directing the reader to the classical form, which is the appropriate treatment — this is a scribal and orthographic variant, not a term with its own distinct legal meaning. No divergence among historical sources is present because the entry exists solely as a cross-reference within the tradition of legal Latin lexicography.