infrequent

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin infrequēns (“occurring seldom, unusual; not crowded, absent”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from in- (“not”) and frequēns (“repeated, regular, often”), the source of frequent.^[3][2][6][7] The OED compares French infréquent.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not much resorted to or practised; little used, uncommon: 1531, in Thomas Elyot's The Boke Named the Gouernour, a sense now obsolete.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, "little used, unaccustomed", is recorded only in the mid 16th century.^[2][7] The modern sense "not happening often, occurring at wide intervals" appears in 1622, in Bishop Joseph Hall,^[2][5] although Etymonline puts it in the 1610s.^[3] The Latin sense "not crowded, thinly peopled" was borrowed once, in 1681.^[2] Later the word was used of things met with at wide distances apart, from before 1682 in Sir Thomas Browne,^[2] and since 1722 of a person who seldom does something, as in an infrequent visitor.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as rare or uncommon.^[8]

Timeline

• 1531 – little used or practised; uncommon (obsolete).^[2][3]
• 1622 – not occurring often; happening at wide intervals.^[2][5]
• 1681 – not crowded, thinly peopled (obsolete, rare).^[2]
• before 1682 – found at wide distances apart; sparse.^[2]
• 1722 – of a person, doing something seldom.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not happening often; rare or occasional: We made infrequent trips to the coast.^[9][5][2]
2. Placed or found at wide intervals; sparse.^[5][2]
3. Of a person, doing something only seldom: an infrequent visitor.^[2][7]

Word family

• infrequence
• infrequently
• infrequency

Related words

• frequent

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins