occasionally
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈkeɪʒənəli/
ipa: /əˈkeɪʒnəli/
ipa: /əˈkeɪʒənli/
Forms: form: more occasionally
form: most occasionally
Etymology: From Middle English occasionally, occasionaly, occasyoneely, occasyonly, equivalent to occasional + -ly.
Senses: examples: text: God ſetteth no houres for the morning or evening ſacrifice because they may occaſionally be changed.
ref: 1639, Henry Ainsworth, Annotations Upon the Five Books of Moses, the Book of the Psalmes and the Song of Songs, page 177:
text: Some perhaps worship only on alternate Sundays; others still more occasionally.
ref: 1855, Horace Mann, “On the Statistical Position of Religious Bodies in England and Wales”, in Journal of the Statistical Society of London, volume 18, number 2, page 152:
text: The journal, more occasionally, has turned to what might be called "fashionable" themes.
ref: 1978, Stephen R. Graubard, “Twenty Years of 'Daedalus'”, in Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, volume 32, number 3, page 18:
text: Flames could still be seen from town flaring up occasionally on a hill dotted with emergency vehicles.
ref: 2007 August 17, Matt Gouras/AP, “Wildfires Rage in Montana”, in Time:
glosses: On occasion: at relatively infrequent intervals, from time to time, sometimes.
examples: text: Mr Tourville occasionally told his age; just turned of thirty-one.
ref: 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CLXI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:
text: [N]othing gave him so much joy in conversation, as an opportunity of giving the company to understand, how well he was with persons of distinguished rank and character: he would often (for example) observe, as it were occasionally, that the duke of G— was one of the best natured men in the world […].
ref: 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
text: I had met Lord Ossory in the forenoon, who had come to town occasionally.
ref: 1790, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 103
glosses: On an occasion, accidentally, by chance.
examples: text: Were nothing els diſcourſively inſerted (as ſome little elſe occaſionally preſented it ſelfe), what paper more currently fit for the bareſt mechanicall uſes, [...]
ref: 1588, G[abriel] H[arvey], “The Fourth Letter. To the Same Favourable or Indifferent Reader.”, in J[ohn] P[ayne] C[ollier], editor, Fovre Letters, and Certaine Sonnets, […] (Miscellaneous Tracts Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I), [London]: [s.n.], published [1870], →OCLC, page 56:
text: I think it is plain, that Origen, whatever Character he may have occaſionally given of this Book, did not judge it any part of the Canon...
ref: 1619, John Richardson, John Toland, The Canon of the New Testament Vindicated, page 30:
glosses: On the occasion of something else happening; incidentally, by the way.
Synonyms: word: at times
word: ever and anon
word: every once in a while
word: every now and then
word: every so often
word: from time to time
word: intermittently
word: irregularly
word: now and again
word: now and then
word: occasionally
word: on occasion
word: once in a while
word: sometimes
word: sporadically
word: uncommonly
word: while
word: whilom
Hypernyms: word: specifically
Related terms: word: flakily
word: unreliably
word: frequency
word: unusually