occasional adj.

late 14c., occasioun, "opportunity; grounds for action or feeling; state of affairs that makes something else possible; a happening, occurrence leading to some result," from Old French ochaison, ocasion "cause, reason, excuse, pretext; opportunity" (13c.) or directly from Latin occasionem (nominative occasio) "opportunity, appropriate time," in Late Latin "cause," from occasum, occasus, past participle of occidere "fall down, go down," from ob "down, away" (see ob-) + -cidere, combining form of cadere "to fall" (from PIE root *kad- "to fall"). The notion is of a "falling together," or juncture, of circumstances. The sense of "the time or a time at which something happens" is from 1560s.

suffix forming adjectives from nouns or other adjectives, "of, like, related to, pertaining to," Middle English -al, -el, from French or directly from Latin -alis (see -al (2)).

c. 1400, "happening on some particular occasion," also "sometimes, happening as occasion presents itself, without regularity," from occasional + -ly (2).