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Rare vs Occasionally - What's the difference?

rare | occasionally |

As an adjective rare

is (cooking|particularly meats) cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red (in the case of steak or beef in the general sense) or rare can be very uncommon; scarce or rare can be (obsolete) early.

As a verb rare

is (us|intransitive) to rear, rise up, start backwards.

As an adverb occasionally is

from time to time; now and then; once in a while; irregularly; at infrequent intervals.

rare

English

Etymology 1

From a dialectal variant of rear, from (etyl) rere, from (etyl) . More at (l).

Alternative forms

* (l), (l) (UK)

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • (cooking, particularly meats) Cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red (in the case of steak or beef in the general sense).
  • * Dryden
  • New-laid eggs, which Baucis' busy care / Turned by a gentle fire, and roasted rare .
    Synonyms
    * (cooked very lightly) sanguinary
    Antonyms
    * (cooked very lightly) well done
    Derived terms
    * medium-rare

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) rare, from (etyl) rare, .

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Very uncommon; scarce.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
  • , title= Wild Plants to the Rescue , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
  • (label) Thin; of low density.
  • Synonyms
    * (very uncommon) scarce, selcouth, seld, seldsome, selly, geason, uncommon
    Antonyms
    * (very uncommon) common
    Derived terms
    * rare bird * rare earth mineral

    Etymology 3

    Variant of rear .

    Verb

    (rar)
  • (US) To rear, rise up, start backwards.
  • * 2006 , Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day , Vintage 2007, p. 328:
  • Frank pretended to rare back as if bedazzled, shielding his eyes with a forearm.
  • (US) To rear, bring up, raise.
  • Usage notes
    * (rft-sense) Principal current, non-literary use is of the present participle raring' with a verb in "'''raring''' to". The principal verb in that construction is ''go''. Thus, '''''raring''' to go'' ("eager (to start something)") is the expression in which '''''rare is most often encountered as a verb.

    Etymology 4

    Compare rather, rath.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) early
  • * Chapman
  • Rude mechanicals that rare and late / Work in the market place.

    Anagrams

    * ----

    occasionally

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • From time to time; now and then; once in a while; irregularly; at infrequent intervals.
  • *1592 , Gabriel Harvey, "Fovre Letters", Miscellaneous Tracts , page 56
  • *:Were nothing els di?cour?ively in?erted (as ?ome little el?e occa?ionally pre?ented it ?elfe), what paper more currently fit for the bare?t mechanicall u?es,...
  • *1619 , John Richardson, John Toland, The canon of the New Testament Vindicated , page 30
  • *:I think it is plain, that Origen'', whatever Character he may have occa?ionally given of this Book, did not judge it any part of the ''Canon ...
  • *1639 , Henry Ainsworth, Annotations Upon the Five Books of Moses, the Book of the Psalmes and the Song of Songs , page 177.
  • *:God ?etteth no houres for the morning or evening ?acrifice because they may occa?ionally be changed.
  • * 1855 , Horace Mann, "On the Statistical Position of Religious Bodies in England and Wales," Journal of the Statistical Society of London , vol. 18, no. 2, p. 152,
  • Some perhaps worship only on alternate Sundays; others still more occasionally .
  • * 1978 , Stephen R. Graubard, "Twenty Years of 'Daedalus'," Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , vol. 32, no. 3, p. 18,
  • The journal, more occasionally , has turned to what might be called "fashionable" themes.
  • * 2007 , Matt Gouras/AP, " Wildfires Rage in Montana," Time , 17 Aug,
  • Flames could still be seen from town flaring up occasionally on a hill dotted with emergency vehicles.