selten

German

Etymology

From Middle High German selten, selden, from Old High German seltan, from Proto-Germanic *seldanē. Cognate with English seldom, Saterland Frisian säilden (“seldom”), West Frisian selden, komselden (“rare, seldom”), Dutch zelden, Danish sjælden, Norwegian sjelden, Swedish sällan, Faroese sjáldan, Icelandic sjaldan.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈzɛltən/, ,

• Audio (Austria)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

selten (strong nominative masculine singular seltener or (uncommon) seltner, not comparable)

1. rare, infrequent, uncommon, scarce
2. unusual, curious
   • 1924, Friedrich Bernhard Störzner, Das weiße Männchen auf dem Kirchberge, in: Reinhardtswalder Sagenbüchlein, Buchhandlung Otto Schmidt, page 11:

     Droben am Himmel funkelten die Sterne in seltener Pracht.

     Up in the sky the stars sparkled in unusual magnificence.

Usage notes

• The contracted comparative seltner is per se rare, but is occasionally used in attributive position: ein noch seltneres Phänomen − "an ever rarer phenomenon". This is done to avoid the three consecutive reduced syllables in selteneres etc.

Declension

Derived terms

• Seltenheit

Adverb

selten

1. seldom; rarely

   Er ist selten unfreundlich.

   He’s rarely ever unfriendly.

2. (chiefly informal, with adjective) unusually; extremely

   Der Typ war ja selten unfreundlich!

   That guy was extremely unfriendly!

   Das ist selten dämlich.

   That’s peculiarly stupid.

Usage notes

• The two senses are distinguishable by context and intonation.

Synonyms

• (extremely): See Thesaurus:sehr

See also

Further reading

• “selten” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “selten” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “selten” in Duden online

Luxembourgish

Adjective

selten (masculine seltenen, neuter seltent, comparative méi selten, superlative am seltensten)

(variant of seelen)

1. rare

Declension

Adverb

selten

1. rarely

Synonyms

• rar