"Sometimes", "oftentimes" — is there a -times word for "very rarely"?
Is there a -times word for rarely? Geoffery Chaucer certainly thought so when in The Clerk’s Tale he whilom wrote:
To that I nevere erst thoughte, streyne me.
I me rejoysed of my liberte,
That seelde tyme is founde in mariage.
Ther I was free, I moot been in servage.
As you see, old Chaucer wasn’t much of a speller. 😼
We would today write his seelde time without spaces, spelling it sometimes seld-time or seldtime but othertimes written out more in full as seldom-time or seldomtime. And as ofttimes occurs with such adverbs for reasons too complex to explore in this question, we might also add an ‑s to make it seldtimes or seldomtimes instead.
Alas that seldtimes should be so seldom seen today, now that seldom is used for seldomtime’s purpose!
Historically, such adverbs have appeared under guise of all manner of spelling and punctuation. For example, in Measure for Measure Shakespeare wrote, albeit perhaps for the sake of the verse’s meter and rhyme, that
This a gentle provost: Seldom-when
is the steeled gaoler the friend of men.
As with adverbs ending in ‑when, ‑while or ‑whiles, and ‑day or ‑days, people would form new adverbs by colliding shorter words with ‑time or ‑times anywhen they pleased. The OED attests such stunning adverbs as:
- aforetime
- aforetimes
- albetimes
- a-nightertime
- a-night-times
- beforetime
- beforetimes
- betime
- betimes
- between-times
- daytimes
- heretoforetime
- night-times
- oftentime
- oftentimes
- oft-time
- oft-times
- one-time
- othertime
- other-times
- quarter time
- seldom-time
- seldom-times
- seld-time
- sometime
- sometimes
- toforetime
Although some of these adverbs were aforetimes written out as separate words, you should still think of them as single adverbs no matter whether they’re spelled with a space or hyphen or written with neither in keeping today’s preferred style of cleanliness. After all, in speech where they originate you cannot hear a space or a hyphen, so this is merely orthographic convention, not grammar.
Courageous writers might be unbewhile tempted to mint their own coinages of this sort as Chaucer and Shakespeare were themselves fearlessly wont to do. However, it is probably best that these adverb-making strategies not be thought of as productive combining forms nowadays unless you’re up for some feather ruffling.
In so unbending a world that even such unremarkable adverbs as daytimes or Tuesdays can freak out the unfamiliar, freely using agèd words like seldtimes risks making unfriends of an otherwise amicable audience.
Stick to seldom and no one will notice you — presuming, of course, that that is your goal. If not, then do as you please.
The phrase once in a blue moon might suit. It describes something that happens very rarely.