dearth

noun
/dɜːθ/UK/dɝθ/US

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 *dīerþ, *dīerþu, from Proto-West Germanic *diuriþu, from Proto-Germanic *diuriþō (“costliness, preciousness, honour”); corresponding to dear + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Old Saxon diuriða (“glory, honour; preciousness”), West Frisian djoerte (“love, dearness, value, worth”), Dutch duurte (“dearness; scarcity, dearth”), Icelandic dýrð (“honour, glory”).

  1. inherited from *diuriþō
  2. inherited from *diuriþu
  3. inherited from *dīerþ
  4. inherited from derth

Definitions

  1. A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive

    A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.

  2. Scarcity

    Scarcity; a lack or short supply.

    • And faine would hee, if he could tell how, haue plentie in his own fields, and scarcity in other mens; superfluitie at home, and dearth abroade, that hee might sell his corne at the dearer rate
  3. Dearness

    Dearness; the quality of being rare or costly.

    • The property of Contraries is, that they become one anothers Cure, whereupon we who have suffered by scarcity and dearth, do pray to be relieved by their contraries, cheapness and plenty
  4. + 1 more definition
    1. To cause or produce a scarcity in something.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at dearth. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01dearth02supply03available04readily05hesitation06doubt07lack

A definitional loop anchored at dearth. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at dearth

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA