occasional

Pluraloccasionals

1. 1
   adjective

   Happening or appearing irregularly from time to time, but not often.

   He suffers from occasional headaches after long days at the screen.

   Apart from an occasional setback, the project moved along on schedule.

   Similarinfrequent, sporadic, intermittent, periodic

   Oppositefrequent, regular, constant

   Note

   The everyday sense, built from occasion plus -al and reaching English as Middle English occasyonal, from Medieval Latin occāsiōnālis and Old French ocasionel. Its most idiomatic use comes with an article: he enjoyed the occasional visitor, he took an occasional glass of wine. That means a few now and then, not one particular visitor. It also grades freely, so a very occasional headline is rarer still.

2. 2
   adjective

   Performing the indicated role from time to time rather than regularly.

   As an occasional columnist, she submits a piece only a few times a year.

   The band hired an occasional drummer for the songs that needed two.

   Oppositeregular

   Note

   The adjective describes a person, but its meaning attaches to what the person does. An occasional writer of letters to the editor is a writer only now and then. The person is not someone who turns up occasionally. It typically sits before an agent noun such as writer, columnist or drummer, and it marks the role as part-time rather than the person as infrequent.

3. 3
   adjective

   Intended to be used as a particular occasion calls for it rather than every day.

   The showroom displayed a range of occasional tables sized for small living rooms.

   She set out the occasional glassware reserved for holiday dinners.

   Note

   A sense that lives mostly among furniture: occasional chairs and occasional tables are extra pieces, brought into use when the room or the gathering calls for them. They are not rare chairs, and unlike the commemorative sense they were not made for any one event. They simply stand ready. The adjective almost always sits directly before the noun in this use.

4. 4
   adjective

   Made or written for one particular event or occasion.

   The composer produced an occasional cantata for the cathedral's reopening.

   His occasional verses celebrated births, victories, and royal birthdays.

   Note

   Here the word looks back to occasion itself, the event, rather than to frequency. Occasional music is written for a graduation or a reopening, and it need not be any rarer than other music. The phrase can mislead, because a reader may hear the "now and then" meaning in it. When someone says Elgar's music was not meant to be occasional music for graduations, the point is purpose, not how often it is played.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A person who does something only from time to time rather than regularly.

   The choir relies on a core group of singers plus a handful of occasionals.

   He was hired not as a full-timer but as an occasional, called in when orders piled up.

   Oppositeregular

   Note

   The part-time person of the role adjective turned into a noun, with the regular plural occasionals. The word usually earns its place beside a contrast, such as a core group plus a handful of occasionals, or an occasional rather than a full-timer. Without that contrast nearby, the noun can sound clipped, so writers often keep the fuller occasional member or occasional helper.

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