occasionally
- 1At relatively infrequent intervals; from time to time rather than on a regular basis.
The committee meets occasionally, usually when an urgent matter arises.
He occasionally writes for the local paper, though most of his work appears elsewhere.
Similarsometimes, periodically, infrequently, sporadically
Oppositeoften, frequently, regularly
Note
Its comparative runs against intuition: more occasionally means less often, not more. Horace Mann, in 1855, describes some who worship only on alternate Sundays and "others still more occasionally", meaning rarer still. Stephen Graubard uses it the same way in 1978, writing that the journal, "more occasionally," turned to fashionable themes. Where a reader might stumble, less often says the same thing plainly.
- 2By chance or accident, as something occurring without design or intention.
Mr Tourville occasionally told his age; just turned of thirty-one.
1748, [Samuel Richardson], ClarissaNote
A trap for modern readers of eighteenth-century prose: here the word means "as it happened," not "from time to time." When Samuel Richardson writes in Clarissa (1748) that Mr Tourville occasionally told his age, he means Tourville mentioned it in passing, not habitually. Boswell's Lord Ossory "had come to town occasionally" in the same way. Read these with the frequency meaning and the sentence quietly changes. The use is now obsolete.
- 3Incidentally or by the way, as a point raised on the occasion of another matter being discussed.
Note
A word for remarks made in passing, prompted by some other subject. Gabriel Harvey (1588) sets it beside "discoursively inserted" for the asides that crept into his letter. John Richardson (1619) grants that Origen may have characterized a book occasionally, in the course of other matters, without counting it canonical. Unlike the "by chance" meaning, the point is digression, not accident. Modern English says incidentally.
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Origin
From Middle English forms such as occasionally and occasionaly, equivalent to "occasional" plus the suffix "-ly."