# Every once in a while...\[reasoning for the idiom\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2010, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045 "2010-09-17T03:12:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/1 "2010-09-17T03:12:37Z")
Shouldn’t it be ‘Once in every while’? That is, there is an occurrence of something once in every indeterminate time period. ‘Every once’ doesn’t make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/2 "2010-09-17T03:35:27Z")
Edited title to indicate subject. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/3 "2010-09-17T03:38:17Z")
It’s an idiom. It doesn’t have to make sense. Like falling “head over heels”: Since it indicates you’ve been knocked upside down, it should be “heels over head.” But it ain’t. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/4 "2010-09-17T09:40:33Z")
I suspect the original (or at least, older) form was simply “once in a while”, which makes more sense. Lots of idioms change over time so they end up making no sense, e.g. “heels over head” -\> “head over heels”, and, in America at least, “couldn’t care less” -\> “could care less” and even for some people “another think coming” -\> “another thing coming”. “Once in a while” is more common here in the UK - to me, “every once in a while” has a definite American ring to it. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/5 "2010-09-17T09:54:21Z")
The evolution of the phrase is probably the following: The term “while” meant a period of time. Then it meant a long period of time (maybe a few years or so). So “once in a while” meant that something could happen at most one time in every few years. Then the term “every once in a while” meant that something could happen at most one time in every few years, but it wouldn’t happen any less than that either. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/6 "2010-09-17T10:04:01Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Shouldn’t it be ‘Once in every while’? That is, there is an occurrence of something once in every indeterminate time period. ‘Every once’ doesn’t make sense. I disagree. ‘Once in every while’ means that there is a once and not more than one; ‘Every once in a while’ means for all whiles that happen to have a once. It’s a nice distinction. Further, ‘once in every while’ can be read to ways: once in the set of all whiles, and once in each and every while. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/7 "2010-09-17T11:39:46Z")
You can’t get to wound up trying to dissect idioms. This one is just like “every now and then” which makes even less sense but everyone knows exactly what it means. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/8 "2010-09-17T12:42:37Z")
I always thought of it as a slightly joky phrase, because there is indeed only one “once” in a while, so the “every” is redundant. A bit like when you ask someone what day it is and they say “Friday, all day”. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/9 "2010-09-17T12:58:35Z")
I use both “once in a while” and “every once in a while,” but I’m having difficulty verbalizing the difference. It’s very subtle. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/10 "2010-09-17T13:26:21Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > The evolution of the phrase is probably the following: > > The term “while” meant a period of time. > > Then it meant a long period of time (maybe a few years or so). > > So “once in a while” meant that something could happen at most one time in every few years. > > Then the term “every once in a while” meant that something could happen at most one time in every few years, but it wouldn’t happen any less than that either. I agree with this, particularly the claim that “every once in a while” evolved from “once in a while,” which I still hear more often. How long a “while” is, or how frequently “once in a while” is, depends on the context (and in any case is never exact). If I say, “Once in a while, someone starts a thread asking about the origin of some idiom,” I mean that it happens relatively infrequently, but not extremely rarely—maybe once every few months, perhaps. If I say “ **Every** once in a while…” to me that implies that it happens with a little more regularity. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/11 "2010-09-17T13:40:20Z")
This is why etymologists 200 years from now will be debating just what “for all intensive purposes” was originally supposed to mean. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/12 "2010-09-17T13:49:01Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > ‘Once in every while’ means that there is a once and not more than one; ‘Every once in a while’ means for all whiles that happen to have a once. It’s a nice distinction. Further, ‘once in every while’ can be read to ways: once in the set of all whiles, and once in each and every while. It took some work to parse this, but I agree. It’s like the difference between saying “I go to the library Tuesday” and “I go to the library every Tuesday.” ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/13 "2010-09-17T13:54:17Z")
And on a related note: why do people say “Now, then…” Now means now. Then means exactly the opposite. Gee, this is fun! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/14 "2010-09-17T20:35:18Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > And on a related note: > why do people say “Now, then…” Or “Hurry up down!” ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/15 "2010-09-17T20:39:48Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > I always thought of it as a slightly joky phrase, because there is indeed only one “once” in a while, so the “every” is redundant. A bit like when you ask someone what day it is and they say “Friday, all day”. “And half the night.” My two cents: I think it’s just bleedover from phrases like “Every so often” (which suggests that “so often” is a time period that repeats). ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/16 "2010-09-18T01:25:37Z")
So am I the only one who now has “Think of Laura” as an earworm? “Every once in a while I’d see her smile…” ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/17 "2010-09-18T04:59:13Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > And on a related note: > why do people say “Now, then…” > > Now means now. Then means exactly the opposite. > Gee, this is fun! You’ve got the wrong “then”. It’s not the opposite of now; it’s the complement to “if”, of “if/then” fame. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-once-in-a-while-reasoning-for-the-idiom/554045/18 "2010-09-18T07:23:22Z")
[quote=“Chessic\_Sense, post:17, topic:554045”] > [@chappachula](#): > > And on a related note: > why do people say “Now, then…” > Now means now. Then means exactly the opposite. > You’ve got the wrong “then”. It’s not the opposite of now; it’s the complement to “if”, of “if/then” fame. Wow! It never occurred to me to look at it that way… 🙂