seldom

[Maybo]

Do native speakers seldom say "seldom" in spoken English?

For example: I seldom clean the floor.

Is it more natural to say "1. I clean the floor rarely/ 2. I don't often clean the floor/ 3. I don't clean the floor very often"?

 

[GoesStation]

It sounds a little rustic to me. I'm more likely to say I don't often do something.

 

[GoesStation]

It sounds a little rustic to me.

In my region you're most likely to hear the word from someone with Appalachian roots. It's less common among more urban people.

 

[jutfrank]

I don't say it, and neither does hardly anyone else in my wider speech group.

 

[teechar]

I seldom use it.

 

[Phaedrus]

It sounds a little rustic to me.

Maybo may be interested to know that "seldom" is featured in a rustic American folk song, "Home on the Range," the chorus to which appears below:

"Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day."

A number of years ago I read a linguist's commentary on the unusual syntax of the bolded line (here). Amusingly, he reports that "seldom" was not part of his vocabulary as a youngster and that he had assumed that, whatever "seldom" meant, it was thought to be a discouraging word! In other words, as a boy, he interpreted the line as if it were punctuated like this:

. . . where "seldom" is heard, a discouraging word . . .

 

[emsr2d2]

I would say that a more everyday version of "I seldom do it" would be "I rarely do it", rather than "I don't often do it". "Not often" can still mean "sometimes", which suggests something happening more often than "seldom" or "rarely".