different between scarce vs scarcer

English

Alternative forms

• scarse (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English scarce, skarce, scarse, scars, from Old Northern French scars, escars ("sparing, niggard, parsimonious, miserly, poor"; > French échars, Medieval Latin scarsus (“diminished, reduced”)), of uncertain origin. One theory is that it derives originally from a Late Latin *scarpsus, *excarpsus, a participle form of *excarpere (“take out”), from Latin ex- + carpere; yet the sense evolution is difficult to trace. Compare also Middle Dutch schaers (“sparing, niggard”), Middle Dutch schaers (“a pair of shears, plowshare”), scheeren (“to shear”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sk??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?sk??s/

Adjective

scarce (comparative scarcer, superlative scarcest)

1. Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.

   • You tell him silver is scarcer now in England, and therefore risen in value one fifth.
2. (archaic) Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); used with of.

Synonyms

• (uncommon, rare): geason, infrequent, raresome; see also Thesaurus:rare

Derived terms

Related terms

• scarcity

Translations

Adverb

scarce (not comparable)

1. (now literary, archaic) Scarcely, only just.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4:

     Yet had I scarce set foot in the passage when I stopped, remembering how once already this same evening I had played the coward, and run home scared with my own fears.

   • 1906, Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman:

     He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,

     But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand

     As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;

     And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,

     (Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)

   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, p. 122:

     Upon the barred and slitted wall the splotched shadow of the heaven tree shuddered and pulsed monstrously in scarce any wind.

   • 1969, John Cleese, Monty Python's Flying Circus:

     Well, it's scarce the replacement then, is it?

Anagrams

• Craces, arcsec

Middle English

Noun

scarce

1. Alternative form of sarse

English

Adjective

scarcer

1. comparative form of scarce: more scarce