資料來源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Occasional \Oc*ca"sion*al\, a. [Cf.F. occasionnel.]
1. Of or pertaining to an occasion or to occasions; 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.
{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.