prosaic means pertaining to or having the characteristics of prose.
prosaic is pronounced /pɹəʊˈzeɪ.ɪk/.
Why “prosaic” is a great word
Describing that which is straightforward, matter-of-fact, and lacking poetic beauty or imaginative originality. From Middle French prosaïque, from Medieval Latin prosaicus ("in prose"), from Latin prosa ("prose"), itself from prorsus ("straightforward, in prose"), derived from Old Latin provorsus ("straight ahead"), from pro- ("forward") + vorsus ("turned"), from vertō ("to turn"). Unlike "poetic," which suggests rhythmic elevation, or "mundane," which denotes the merely routine, "prosaic" specifically indicts a failure of style, a poverty of aesthetic spirit. It is the flavorless beige of an office corridor, the flat, declarative sentence in a technical manual, the unadorned recounting of a day where nothing remarkable happened—a quiet resignation to the world as it is, stripped of the transformative lens of wonder.
Etymology
From Middle French prosaïque, from Medieval Latin prosaicus (“in prose”), from Latin prosa (“prose”), from prorsus (“straightforward, in prose”), from Old Latin provorsus (“straight ahead”), from pro- (“forward”) + vorsus (“turned”), from vertō (“to turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, to bend”).
adj
- Pertaining to or having the characteristics of prose.e.g.“The tenor of Eliot's prosaic work differs greatly from that of his poetry.”
- Straightforward; matter-of-fact; lacking the feeling or elegance of poetry.e.g.“I was simply making the prosaic point that we are running late.”
- Overly plain, simple or commonplace, to the point of being boring.e.g.“His account of the incident was so prosaic that I nodded off while reading it.”