seldom
Infrequently, rarely.
Adjective
- Rare; infrequent.
- a suppressed and seldom anger - 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC:
- He was very curious in his garden, which was never out of order; in which he would at seldom times take a short walk or two, not enduring to see a weed in it. - 1850, Vignaud Pamphlets: Sir Isaac Newton, page 513:
Synonyms: geason uncommon dearthy few and far between infrequent in short supply rare raresome scant scantling scarce selcouth seld seldom selly superrare unfrequent
Origin
From late Middle English seldom, alteration of earlier selden by analogy with adverbial datives such as whilom, from Old English seldan (“seldom”), from Proto-West Germanic *seldanā, from Proto-Germanic *seldanē. Cognate with Saterland Frisian säilden (“seldom”), West Frisian selden, komselden (“rare, seldom”), Dutch zelden, German selten, Danish sjælden, Norwegian Bokmål sjelden, Norwegian Nynorsk sjeldan, Swedish sällan, Faroese sjáldan, Icelandic sjaldan. More at seld and selly.
Forms
Related
Derived
Adverb
- Infrequently, rarely.
- They seldom come here now.
- I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. - 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter...
- But one thing I was perfectly certain about. Reality or nightmare, I needed a drink as I had seldom needed one before. - 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 21:
Synonyms: barely hardly rarely scarcely infrequently seldomly seldom uncommonly unoften
Antonyms: often frequently a lot feelefold manifold manyfold oft oftenly oftentimes ofttimes repeatedly unseldom
Forms
Derived
barking dogs seldom bite a barking dog seldom bites opportunity seldom knocks twice seldom or ever seldomtimes unseldom