seldom

• めったにない

古英語のseldumから。原語ゲルマン語の*seldan（少ない、まれ）から転化した。

seldom

seldom: [OE] Seldom goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *selda-, of which the underlying notion appears to have been ‘strange and rare’. Its modern Germanic relatives include German selten, Dutch zelten, Swedish s?llan, and Danish sjelden.

seldom (adv.)

late Old English seldum, alteration of seldan "seldom, rarely," from Proto-Germanic *selda- "strange, rare" (cognates: Old Norse sjaldan, Old Frisian selden, Dutch zelden, Old High German seltan, German selten), perhaps ultimately from the base of self (q.v.).

Form shifted on analogy of adverbial dative plurals in -um (such as whilom "at one time," from while). The same development also created litlum from little, miclum from mickle. German seltsam "strange, odd," Dutch zeldzaam are related, but with the second element conformed to their versions of -some.

Seldom-times is from mid-15c. (Old English had seldhwanne "seldwhen"). Seldom-seen is from mid-15c. (Old English had seldsiene, "seld-seen").

Some compounds using the old form survived through Middle English, such as selcouth"rarely or little-known, unusual, strange, wonderful," from Old English selcue, seld-cue, from seldan + cue (see couth). Old English seldan had comparative seldor, superlative seldost; in early Middle English, as seldan changed form and lost its connection with these, selde was formed as a positive. Shakespeare uses seld-shown.

1. Even Ford,who seldom smiled,laughed out loud a few times.

めったに笑わないフォードでも、何度か声を出して笑った。

2.They seldom speak.

彼らはあまり発言しない。

3.I 've seldom felt so happy.

こんなに幸せに感じることはめったにありません。

4.We were seldom at home.

私たちは留守がちです。

5.He had seldom seen a child with so much talent.

このような才能を持った子供はこれまで何人も見たことがない。