unseldom

English

WOTD – 10 August 2023

Etymology

From un- (prefix meaning ‘not’) +‎ seldom.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈsɛldəm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛldəm
• Hyphenation: un‧sel‧dom

Adverb

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

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

Translations

not seldom — see frequently,‎ regularly

Further reading

• “unseldom”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• Mouldens, mouldens