different between dearth vs nonexistence

English

Etymology

First attested at least as early as the late 1300s, and appearing in Tyndale’s Pentateuch (1530) as well as the Coverdale Bible (1535). From Middle English derth, derthe, derþe, probably from Old English *d?erþ, *d?erþu, from Proto-West Germanic *diuriþu, from Proto-Germanic *diuriþ? (“costliness, preciousness, honour”); corresponding to dear +? -th. Cognate with Old Saxon diuriða (“glory, honour; preciousness”), West Frisian djoerte (“love, dearness, value, worth”), Dutch duurte (“dearness; scarcity, dearth”), Icelandic dýrð (“honour, glory”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /d??/, enPR: dûrth
• Rhymes: -??(?)?

Noun

dearth (countable and uncountable, plural dearths)

1. A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.
2. (by extension) Scarcity; a lack or short supply.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXV:

     Next a marsh, it would seem, and now mere earth / Desperate and done with; (so a fool finds mirth, / Makes a thing and then mars it, till his mood / Changes and off he goes!) within a rood— / Bog, clay and rubble, sand and stark black dearth.
3. (obsolete) Dearness; the quality of being rare or costly.

Synonyms

• (period when food is rare): famine, shortage
• (scarcity): lack, paucity, scarcity

Translations

Further reading

• dearth at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Dehart, dareth, hatred, hetdar, thread

English

Alternative forms

• non-existence

Etymology

non- +? existence

Pronunciation

Noun

nonexistence (countable and uncountable, plural nonexistences)

1. The state of not existing.

   The nonexistence of Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy came as something of a shock.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:inexistence

Translations