sometime
- 1At some point that is not exactly fixed but falls within a named period, whether in the past or in the future.
We should schedule the inspection sometime in the coming month.
The old textile mill shut its doors sometime in the early 1970s.
Note
The everyday adverb, and the one that keeps the word's makeup in plain view: Middle English wrote it somtyme, som time or sume time, simply some + time. In use it rarely stands alone. It leans on a phrase that fences in the window, as in sometime this evening, sometime yesterday, or sometime between 1914 and 1918. The exact moment is unknown, but the stretch it falls in is named.
- 2Former; erstwhile; having held a role or position at some previous time.
The building's sometime owner returned to visit after nearly two decades away.
A sometime colleague of mine wrote the introduction to the new edition.
Similarformer, erstwhile, onetime, previous, past
Note
An adjective that always comes before its noun: my sometime friend, the building's sometime owner. In Hamlet, "our sometime sister, now our queen" shows its typical move: it names an old role so that the new one can replace it. The use runs from Shakespeare to Thomas Noon Talfourd's Ion: A Tragedy (1832), and on to plain modern phrases like my sometime friend and mentor.
- 3Occasional; happening from time to time rather than on a regular basis.
The mountain cabin served as their sometime retreat during the busiest summers.
He was a sometime contributor to several popular science magazines.
Similaroccasional, intermittent, periodic, sporadic, irregular
Oppositeregular, frequent, constant
Note
Here the word is about frequency, not the past: a sometime lecturer lectures now and then, not formerly. It shares its spelling and its place before the noun with the 'former' adjective, so the phrase can be read either way. Context usually tells the reader which is meant, as in an author and sometime lecturer. When the difference matters, occasional says it plainly.
Less common meanings
- 4At some time that is not specified, whether in the past or the future; also, at one time, formerly.
The knight had sometime served the crown with great devotion.
Did they not sometime cry "All hail" to me?
1595, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”Note
The backward-looking adverb, where sometime meant 'at one time' and pointed to a past now gone. Shakespeare uses it in 1595: "Did they not sometime cry 'All hail' to me?" The cheering is remembered, not present. The adverb has died out, and modern English says once or formerly instead. Its meaning lives on in the adjective 'former', as in my sometime friend.
- 5Sometimes; on certain occasions rather than always.
Note
A meaning that has passed entirely to the form with a final -s. Where older English wrote sometime for 'now and then', a modern writer writes sometimes. Reviving it is risky, because the same spelling also once meant 'formerly' (the obsolete 'once' sense), so she sometime visited could be read either way. Treat it as a feature of period prose, not a choice for current writing.
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Practice
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Origin
From Middle English somtyme (also som time, sumtyme and other spellings), equivalent to "some" plus "time".