dearth
UK /dɜːθ/ · US /dɝθ/ noun, verb
Forms dearths dearthing dearthed
- noun A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine.
- noun (by extension) Scarcity; a lack or short supply.
- noun (obsolete) Dearness; the quality of being rare or costly.
- verb (transitive, dated, obsolete) To cause or produce a scarcity in something.
Synonyms
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”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine.
Etymology [OE. derthe, fr. dere. See Dear.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “dearth”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details