mundaneadj.n.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman mundain, mundan, mundein, mondan and Middle French, French mondain worldly, earthly (late 12th cent. in Anglo-Norman as mundain , also 14th cent. in a Picard text in this form; c1225 in Old French in sense ‘secular’, c1275 in sense ‘cosmic’, c1480 as noun in sense ‘person fond of worldly pleasures’, 1498 denoting a dweller in the earthly world in the passage translated in quot. 1509 at sense B. 1; compare mondaine adj., mondain n., mondaine n.) and their etymon classical Latin mundānus belonging to the world, earthly, relating to the universe, cosmic (earliest attested 2nd cent. a.d. in Apuleius, but compare earlier use as noun), in post-classical Latin also secular (4th cent.) and in astrological sense (c1230 in a British source), also in classical Latin as noun in sense ‘inhabitant of the world’ (Cicero, translating ancient Greek κοσμοπολίτης cosmopolite n.), in post-classical Latin also secular person (4th cent.) < mundus world (of uncertain origin) + -ānus -an suffix. On the form shown by the ending see -ane suffix¹.In sense A. 5, probably after mondaine adj. In sense B. 2, probably after mondaine n. N.E.D. (1908) gives the pronunciation as (mɒ·ndeⁱn) /ˈmʌndeɪn/. Pronunciations with stress on the first syllable start out as the norm in both British and North American English. Stress on the second syllable is recorded from the third quarter of the 20th cent. onwards, and became the dominant variant by the end of the 20th cent.