seldom
/ˈsɛldəm/ adverb, adjective
Forms seldomer seldomest seldome
- adverb Infrequently, rarely. “They seldom come here now.”
- adjective (archaic) Rare; infrequent.
Synonyms
barely hardly rarely scarcely infrequently seldomly uncommonly unoften geason uncommon dearthy few and far between infrequent in short supply non-common rare raresome scant scantling scarce
Antonyms
often frequently a lot feelefold manifold manyfold oft oftenly oftentimes ofttimes repeatedly unseldom
Etymology
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.
Webster’s 1913
- adverb Rarely; not often; not frequently.
- adjective Rare; infrequent. [Archaic.] "A suppressed and seldom anger." Jer. Taylor.
Etymology [AS. seldan, seldon, seldum, fr. seld rare; akin to OFries. sielden, D. zelden, G. selten, OHG. seltan, Icel. sjaldan, Dan. sielden, Sw. sällan, Goth. sildaleiks marvelous.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “seldom”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details