Intermittent means stopping and starting at intervals. Intermittent rain, an intermittent fault, intermittent fasting.
The stopping is what defines it, and an intermittent fault is the hardest kind to diagnose precisely because it will not repeat on demand. Intermittent fasting means eating within a limited window. In forecasting, intermittent rain is on and off. Note intermittently; and that the Latin means sending between, from mittere, which also gives mission and permit.
1adjectiveintermittentStopping and starting at intervals.
“There will be intermittent showers today, with some sunny spells in between.”
synonyms: sporadic, occasional
intermittent is a quality of stopping and starting.
Latin intermittens comes from intermittere, to leave off — inter plus mittere, to send. Mission, permit and transmit come from the same sending.
Latin
intermittens — sending between
Middle French
intermittent
English, today
intermittent
Built from
From Middle French intermittent, from Latin intermittens (“sending between”), from prefix inter- (“among, on”) + mittens (“sending”), from mittere (“to send”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA