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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Occasional \Oc*ca"sion*al\ ([o^]k*k[=a]"zh[u^]n*al), adjective [Cf. F. occasionnel.]
1. Occuring at times, but not constant, regular, or systematic; made or happening as opportunity requires or admits; casual; incidental; as, occasional remarks, or efforts.
The . . . occasional writing of the present times. --Bagehot.
2. Produced by accident; as, the occasional origin of a thing. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
3. Of or pertaining to an occasion or to occasions; intended for a specific occasion; for use only when needed, and not regularly. [PJC]
{Occasional cause} (Metaph.), some circumstance preceding an effect which, without being the real cause, becomes the occasion of the action of the efficient cause; thus, the act of touching gunpowder with fire is the occasional, but not the efficient, cause of an explosion.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
occasional
adjective
1: occurring from time to time; "took an occasional glass of wine" [syn: {occasional(a)}]
2: occurring or appearing at usually irregular intervals; "episodic in his affections"; "occasional headaches" [syn: {episodic}]
3: employed in a specified capacity from time to time; "casual employment"; "a casual correspondence with a former teacher"; "an occasional worker" [syn: {casual}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
74 Moby Thesaurus words for "occasional": accessory, accidental, accompanying, additional, ado, adventitious, afloat, afoot, aleatory, auxiliary, behind the scenes, by-the-way, casual, causal, causative, ceremonial, circumstantial, conditional, constitutive, contingent, current, decisive, determinative, doing, effectual, etiological, eventuating, extra, few, formative, going on, happening, in hand, in the wind, incidental, inessential, infrequent, institutive, intermittent, irregular, nonessential, occurring, odd, off, on, on foot, ongoing, originative, out-of-the-way, parenthetical, part-time, particular, passing, periodic, pivotal, prevailing, prevalent, provisional, random, rare, resultant, ritual, scarce, seldom, side, spare, special, sporadic, supplementary, taking place, uncommon, under way, unessential, unfrequent
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
OCCASIONAL, adjective Afflicting us with greater or less frequency. That, however, is not the sense in which the word is used in the phrase "occasional verses," which are verses written for an "occasion," such as an anniversary, a celebration or other event. True, they afflict us a little worse than other sorts of verse, but their name has no reference to irregular recurrence.
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