In various places scattered about, or occasionally and irregularly.
Dating back to the 14th century, this phrase originally referred strictly to physical locations. Over time, it expanded to include temporal meanings, describing things that happen sporadically. The alliterative pairing of 'here' and 'there' creates a pleasing sound pattern that helped ensure its survival in English.
This phrase demonstrates how spatial concepts in language often evolve to express temporal ones—we use the same words to describe scattered locations and scattered time intervals. It's a perfect example of how our brains map physical space onto abstract concepts like time and frequency.
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