different between dearth vs rarity

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

Etymology

rare +? -ity, borrowed from Middle French rarité, from Latin r?rit?s; compare French rareté. See also rare.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /????.??.t?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /????.?.ti/

Noun

rarity (plural rarities)

1. A measure of the scarcity of an object.
2. (chemistry, of a gas) Thinness; the property of having low density
4. A rare object.

Synonyms

• (measure of the scarcity): rareness; see also Thesaurus:rareness
• (having low density): subtlety
• (rare object): hen's tooth; see also Thesaurus:rarity

Related terms

• rare
• rarely

Translations

References

• rarity at OneLook Dictionary Search