unseldom

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English[edit]

WOTD – 10 August 2023

Etymology[edit]

From un- (prefix meaning ‘not’) +‎ seldom.[1][2]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adverb[edit]

unseldom (comparative more unseldom, superlative most unseldom)

  1. (literary) Not seldom; frequently, regularly.
    Synonyms: (literary except India) unoften; see also Thesaurus:often
    • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter V, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 52:
      When Mr. Collins said any thing of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed, which certainly was not unseldom, she involuntarily turned her eye on Charlotte.
    • [1878], William Morris, The Decorative Arts: Their Relation to Modern Life and Progress […], London: Ellis and White, […], →OCLC, page 21:
      For as was the land, such was the art of it while folk yet troubled themselves about such things; it strove little to impress people either by pomp or ingenuity: not unseldom it fell into commonplace, rarely it rose into majesty; yet was it never oppressive, never a slave’s nightmare or an insolent boast: and at its best it had an inventiveness, an individuality, that grander styles have never overpassed: […]
    • 1921, Walter B[urton] Harris, “The Moorish Court. I. The Accession of Mulai Abdul Aziz.”, in Morocco That Was, Edinburgh, London: Wiliam Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 17:
      Mulai Abdul Aziz was, at the time of his succession (1894), about twelve or thirteen years of age. He was a younger son of the late Sultan, for Islamic thrones do not necessarily descend by primogeniture. It is not unseldom a brother who succeeds, and at times even more distant relations.

Usage notes[edit]

  • Almost exclusively used in the phrase not unseldom,[3] an example of litotes.

Translations[edit]

not seldom — see frequently,‎ regularly

References[edit]

  1. ^ “unseldom, adv.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  2. ^ “unseldom, adv.”, in Collins English Dictionary.
  3. ^ unseldom, not unseldom at Google Ngram Viewer

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

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