From lateMiddle Englishseldom, alteration of earlierselden, fromOld Englishseldan(“seldom”), fromProto-West Germanic*seldanā, fromProto-Germanic*seldanē.
Cognate withSaterland Frisiansäilden(“seldom”),West Frisianselden,komselden(“rare, seldom”),Dutchzelden,Germanselten,Danishsjælden,Norwegiansjelden,Swedishsällan,Faroesesjáldan,Icelandicsjaldan. More atseld andselly.
seldom (comparativemoreseldomorseldomer,superlativemostseldomorseldomest)
- Infrequently,rarely.
- Synonyms:barely,hardly,rarely,scarcely,infrequently,seldomly;see alsoThesaurus:rarely
- Antonyms:often,frequently;see alsoThesaurus:often
Theyseldom come here now.
1897 December (indicated as1898),Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, inThe Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.:The Macmillan Company; London:Macmillan & Co., Ltd.,→OCLC: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 wasseldom relaxed.
1984, 20:05 from the start, inDune[1] (Science Fiction),→OCLC:I'll miss the sea. But a person needs new experiences. They draw something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change, something sleeps inside us andseldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.
2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, inNew York Times[2]:People who talk about an imminent possibility of warseldom pose this question: What would North Korea’s leadership get from unleashing a war that they are likely to lose in weeks, if not days?
2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, inThe Economist, volume407, number8838, page71:Finance isseldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.
- It is grammatically a negative word. It therefore collocates withever rather thannever. Compareheseldom ever plays tennis withhe almost never plays tennis.
- The formseldomly, derived from the (now archaic) adjectival use, exists, but has not gained widespread acceptance.
infrequently, rarely
- Afrikaans:selde (af)
- Albanian:rrallë (sq)
- Arabic:نَادِرًا(nādiran)
- Armenian:հազվադեպ (hy)(hazvadep)
- Asturian:raramente
- Azerbaijani:az (az),gec-gec
- Basque:gutxitan
- Belarusian:рэ́дка(rédka)
- Bengali:কদাপি (bn)(kodapi)
- Bulgarian:ря́дко (bg)(rjádko)
- Burmese:ဆယ်ခါတစ်ခါ (my)(hcaihkatachka),ဖြစ်ခေါင့်ဖြစ်ခဲ (my)(hprachkaung.hprachkai:)
- Catalan:rarament (ca)
- Cebuano:talagsa
- Chinese:
- Cantonese:很少(han2 siu2),(colloquial)好少(hou2 siu2)
- Mandarin:很少(hěnshǎo),伄儅 /伄𰁸 (zh)(diàodāng)
- Czech:zřídka (cs)
- Danish:sjældent
- Dutch:zelden (nl)
- Esperanto:malofte
- Estonian:harva
- Faroese:sjáldan
- Finnish:harvoin (fi)
- French:rarement (fr)
- Georgian:იშვიათად(išviatad)
- German:selten (de)
- Greek:σπάνια (el)(spánia)
- Ancient Greek:σπανίως(spaníōs)
- Hebrew:לְעִתִּים רְחוֹקוֹת(le'eteym rekhokót)
- Hindi:कभी कभी(kabhī kabhī)
- Hungarian:ritkán (hu)
- Icelandic:sjaldan (is)
- Indonesian:jarang (id)
- Irish:go hannamh
- Italian:raramente (it),di rado
- Japanese:稀に (ja)(まれに, mare ni),滅多に…ない (ja)(めったに…ない, metta ni ... nai)(with negative verbs)
- Kannada:please add this translation if you can
- Kapampangan:malagad
- Kazakh:аз (kk)(az),сирек(sirek)
- Khmer:មិនសូវ(mɨn sǝv)
- Korean:좀체로…않게(jomchero…anke),드물게(deumulge)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish:بەدەگمان(bedegman)
- Kyrgyz:аз (ky)(az)
- Lao:ບໍ່ສູ້(bǭ sū)
- Latin:rārē,rārenter,rārō
- Latvian:reti
- Lithuanian:retai (lt),nedažnai
- Macedonian:ретко(retko)
- Malay:jarang (ms)
- Maltese:rari
- Mongolian:хааяа нэг(xaajaa neg)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål:sjelden (no)
- Nynorsk:sjeldan
- Ojibwe:wiikaa
- Persian:ندرت (fa)(nodrat),به ندرت(be nodrat)
- Polish:rzadko (pl)
- Portuguese:raramente (pt)
- Romanian:rar (ro),rareori (ro)
- Russian:ре́дко (ru)(rédko),и́зредка (ru)(ízredka)
- Scottish Gaelic:ainneamh
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic:ретко,ријетко
- Roman:retko (sh),rijetko (sh)
- Slovak:zriedka (sk)
- Slovene:rédko (sl)
- Spanish:raramente (es),rara vez,cuasinunca,pocasveces
- Swahili:nadra (sw)
- Swedish:sällan (sv)
- Tagalog:bihira
- Tajik:нудратан(nudratan),кушод-кушод(kušod-kušod)
- Tatar:аз (tt)(az),сирәк (tt)(siräk)
- Thai:ไม่บ่อย(mâi-bɔ̀i)
- Turkish:az (tr),nadiren (tr)
- Turkmen:az (tk)
- Ukrainian:рі́дко(rídko),зрі́дка(zrídka)
- Urdu:کبھی کبھی(kabhī kabhī)
- Uzbek:oz (uz)
- Vietnamese:ít khi (vi)
- Volapük:selediko,seledo
- Welsh:anfynych (cy)
- Yiddish:זעלטן(zeltn)
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seldom (comparativemoreseldomorseldomer,superlativemostseldomorseldomest)
- (archaic)Rare;infrequent.
- Synonyms:geason,uncommon;see alsoThesaurus:rare
1651,Jer[emy] Taylor,The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […],→OCLC:a suppressed andseldom anger
1850,Vignaud Pamphlets: Sir Isaac Newton, page513:He was very curious in his garden, which was never out of order; in which he would atseldom times take a short walk or two, not enduring to see a weed in it.
FromOld Englishseldan.
seldom
- Alternative form ofselden(“seldom”)
FromOld Englishselden.
seldom
- Alternative form ofselden(“uncommon”)
