infraordinary

English

Etymology

From infra- +‎ ordinary. Now mainly used as an allusion to the writings of French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist Georges Perec, who used the term l’infra-ordinaire in his 1973 essay "Approaches to What?" (Approches de quoi ?). First attested in 1827.

Adjective

infraordinary (comparative more infraordinary, superlative most infraordinary)

1. (literary) Existing at a level below that which is considered ordinary.
   • 1904 February, “Books and Writers”, in Sunset, volume XII, number 4, San Francisco, C.A.: Southern Pacific, page 368, column 2:

     There is richness in every verse, with ever now and then a bit of imagery that must inevitably stamp itself upon even an infraordinary intelligence.

   • 2010, William Boelhower, “Figuring Out Little Italy: Down Mott Street and into the City”, in Dennis Barone, Stefano Luconi, editors, Small Towns, Big Cities: The Urban Experience of Italian Americans, New York, N.Y.: American Italian Historical Association, →ISBN, page 22:

     More generally, the historical idea of Little Italy weans its authority from the worlding effects of the colony's infraordinary everyday life, which appears as a fully visualized morphology.

   • 2025 January 25, Hilary Leichter, “A ’Groundhog Day’ Time Loop So Long It Spans 7 Enthralling Books”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 January 2025:

     "On the Calculation of Volume," structured as a numbered diary (we begin on Tara's 121st Nov. 18), plunges us into what Georges Perec called the infraordinary, the perplexities of the habitual and the banal: a stirring confrontation with reality that feels genuinely new. These books might brim with repetitions, but they are hardly recapitulations.