sometimes

Etymology

From Middle English sumtymes, somtymes, som tymes, equivalent to sometime + -s (adverbial suffix). Compare West Frisian somstiden (“sometimes”), Dutch somtijds, somwijlen (“sometimes”).

adv

1. On certain occasions, or in certain circumstances, but not always.
   Sometimes I sit and think, but mostly I just sit.
   It is good that we sometimes be contradicted, and ill though of, and that we always bear it well, even when we deserve to be well spoken of : perfect peace and security cannot be had in this world. a. 1667, Jeremy Taylor, “Agenda; or, Things to Be Done”, in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., volume III, London: Frederick Westley and A. H. Davis, published 1836, page 730
   The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll. 2013-06-08, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55
2. (obsolete) On a certain occasion in the past; once.

adj

1. (obsolete) Former; sometime.