frequently

Etymology

It is formed from English frequent + -ly.^[2][3][4] The adjective is from Old French frequent or directly from Latin frequēns (“crowded, numerous, repeated”),^[3][5][6] although the OED derives it from Latin alone.^[2] The further origin of the Latin word is unclear.^[3][7][8] The OED and Ayto connect it with farciō (“to stuff, cram”), the source of farce,^[2][9] and Barnhart and Watkins, the latter as cited by Etymonline, propose Proto-Indo-European *bhrekw- (“to cram together”).^[5][3] Johnson (1755) derived the adverb from frequenter.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

At short intervals, often: 1531, in Elyot's The Boke Named the Gouernour,^[2][11] the 1530s in Etymonline.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first meant ample or profuse, in the mid-15th century,^[3][5] and the sense "common, usual" appears in the same book of Elyot's, of 1531.^[5][2] Its sense "happening at short intervals" is recorded only from 1604, so the adverb has that meaning earlier than the adjective does.^[5][2] The adjective's older sense of "crowded, numerous" also left a trace in the adverb, which meant "numerously, populously" from 1615 to 1638;^[2] Ayto notes that the sense "crowded" had virtually died out by the end of the 18th century.^[9] Johnson (1755) defined the adverb as often, commonly, not seldom, and quoted Swift for it.^[10] The adjective itself has been used as an adverb, in the same sense, since 1614, a use the OED calls nonstandard in later English.^[2]

Timeline

• 1531 – at short intervals, often, repeatedly.^[2][11]
• 1615 – numerously, populously (obsolete by 1638).^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Often; at short intervals; repeatedly: The trains to the coast run frequently in summer.^[2][11][4]

Related words

• frequent
• frequency
• frequentative
• farce

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster