adv. phr. [A prep.1 on + day’s gen. sing. of day. In OE. the gen. dæʓes was used adverbially = by day, during the day, ‘dæʓes and nihtes,’ he is anxious ‘day and night.’ Subsequently, the genitive was strengthened by the prep. a = in, on. See A prep.1 8 and DAY.]
† 1. By day, during the day, in the day-time. Obs.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 278. Antony a dayes · aboute none tyme, Had a bridde þat brouȝte hym bred.
1560. Ingeland, Disob. Child (1848), 21. With broylynge & burnynge in the kytchyn adayes.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. II. ii. (1676), 45/1. Pining a daies … waking a nights.
1675. Hobbes, Odyssey, 59. A-days he weeping sat upon the shore.
1765. Ellwood, Life (ed. 3), 149. We had also the Liberty of some other Rooms over that Hall, to walk or work in a-Days.
2. Now-a-days: At the present day, during the present time.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. T., 425. Ffor any wit þat men han now a dayes [Camb. MS. on dayes].
a. 1420. Occleve, De Reg. Princ., 1415. Adayes now, my sone, as men may see, o chirche to o man may nat suffise.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. xiii. 227. Peple now adaies ben not to be blamed.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N. D., III. i. 148. Reason and loue keepe little company together, now-adayes.
1651. Wittie, Primrose’s Pop. Err., I. ii. 4. But now adayes great is the neglect herein.
1711. Greenwood, Eng. Gram., 227. One ought not promiscuously to write every Noun with a great Letter, as is the Fashion of some now adaies.
1856. E. B. Denison, Church Bldg., iv. 150. What would nowadays be talked of as a very fine spire.
