selten
Appearance
German
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle High German selten, selden, from Old High German seltan, from Proto-Germanic *seldanē. Cognate with English seldom, Saterland Frisian säilden (“seldom”), West Frisian selden, komselden (“rare, seldom”), Dutch zelden, Danish sjælden, Norwegian sjelden, Swedish sällan, Faroese sjáldan, Icelandic sjaldan.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]selten (strong nominative masculine singular seltener or (uncommon) seltner, not comparable)
- rare, infrequent, uncommon, scarce
- unusual, curious
- 1924, Friedrich Bernhard Störzner, Das weiße Männchen auf dem Kirchberge, in: Reinhardtswalder Sagenbüchlein, Buchhandlung Otto Schmidt, page 11:
- Droben am Himmel funkelten die Sterne in seltener Pracht.
- Up in the sky the stars sparkled in unusual magnificence.
- 1924, Friedrich Bernhard Störzner, Das weiße Männchen auf dem Kirchberge, in: Reinhardtswalder Sagenbüchlein, Buchhandlung Otto Schmidt, page 11:
Usage notes
[edit]- The contracted comparative seltner is per se rare, but is occasionally used in attributive position: ein noch seltneres Phänomen − "an ever rarer phenomenon". This is done to avoid the three consecutive reduced syllables in selteneres etc.
Declension
[edit]Positive forms of selten (uncomparable)
1Uncommon.
Derived terms
[edit]Adverb
[edit]selten
- seldom; rarely
- Er ist selten unfreundlich.
- He’s rarely ever unfriendly.
- (chiefly informal, with adjective) unusually; extremely [from 18th c. or older]
- Der Typ war ja selten unfreundlich!
- That guy was extremely unfriendly!
- Das ist selten dämlich.
- That’s peculiarly stupid.
Usage notes
[edit]- The two senses are distinguishable by context and intonation.
Synonyms
[edit]- (extremely): See Thesaurus:sehr
See also
[edit]probability | 100 % | ~90 % | ~50 % | ~10 % | 0 % | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adverb | immer | fast immer, meistens | sehr häufig, sehr oft | öfters, des öfteren, häufig, oft | gelegentlich, manchmal, zuweilen | nicht häufig, nicht oft | selten | sehr selten, fast nie | nie |
Further reading
[edit]- “selten” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
- “selten” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
- “selten” in Duden online
Luxembourgish
[edit]Adjective
[edit]selten (masculine seltenen, neuter seltent, comparative méi selten, superlative am seltensten)
(variant of seelen)
Declension
[edit]declension of selten
number and gender | singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | all genders | ||
predicative | hien ass selten | si ass selten | et ass selten | si si(nn) selten | |
nominative / accusative |
attributive and/or after determiner | seltenen | selten | seltent | selten |
independent without determiner | seltenes | seltener | |||
dative | after any declined word | seltenen | seltener | seltenen | seltenen |
as first declined word | seltenem | seltenem |
Adverb
[edit]selten
Synonyms
[edit]Categories:
- German terms inherited from Middle High German
- German terms derived from Middle High German
- German terms inherited from Old High German
- German terms derived from Old High German
- German terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- German terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- German 2-syllable words
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
- German terms with audio pronunciation
- German lemmas
- German adjectives
- German uncomparable adjectives
- German terms with quotations
- German adverbs
- German terms with usage examples
- German informal terms
- Luxembourgish lemmas
- Luxembourgish adjectives
- Luxembourgish adverbs