Periodic means happening at regular intervals. Periodic checks, periodic review, periodic maintenance.
The regularity is the claim, which is why periodic and occasional are not the same — occasional says now and then, periodic says on a schedule. The periodic table is named because the properties of the elements repeat at regular intervals of atomic number. Note periodical, which as a noun is a magazine.
1adjectiveperiodicHappening at regular intervals.
“The machines need periodic checks to make sure they are still working safely.”
periodic is a quality of regularity.
Greek periodos means a going round — peri plus hodos, a way. Period, exodus and method come from the same road.
Ancient Greek
περίοδος — cycle, period of time
Latin
periodus — complete sentence, period, circuit
Medieval Latin
periodicus — cyclical
French
périodique
English, today
periodic
From French périodique, from Medieval Latin periodicus (“cyclical”), from Latin periodus (“complete sentence, period, circuit”), from Ancient Greek περίοδος (“cycle, period of time”). by surface analysis, period + -ic.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA