scarce

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scarce

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• scarse (obsolete)

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. The standard pronunciation having the /ɛə(ɹ)/ vowel instead of the expected /ɑː(ɹ)/ is irregular, and has not been conclusively explained. Compare Middle Dutch schaers (“scarce”), Middle Dutch schaers (“a pair of shears, plowshare”), scheeren (“to shear”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskɛə(ɹ)s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskɛɚs/
• (nonstandard) IPA^(key): /skɑː(ɹ)s/
• (dialectal) IPA^(key): /ˈskeɪs/^[1]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)s

scarce (comparative scarcer, superlative scarcest)

1. (chiefly of resources, such as food) Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.

   By the end of the 20th century elephants had become scarce even in Africa.

   • 1691, [John Locke], Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money. , London: Awnsham and John Churchill, , published 1692, →OCLC:

     You tell him silver is scarcer now in England, and therefore risen in value one fifth.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

2. Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); used with of.

   The project failed due to the scarce resources in the national market.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     a region scarce of prey

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

• scarcity

scarce (not comparable)

1. (archaic, literary) Scarcely, only just.
   • 1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, , London: Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, , →OCLC, page 24:

     The Virgin quite for her requeſt / The God that ſits at marriage feaſt; / He at their invoking came / But with a ſcarce-wel-lighted flame; / And in his Garland as he ſtood, / Ye might diſcern a Cipreſs bud.

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Permitted to See the Grand Academy of Lagado. ”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. , volume II, London: Benj Motte, , →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 78:

     I was at the Mathematical School, where the Maſter taught his Pupils after a Method ſcarce imaginable to us in Europe. The Propoſition and Demonſtration were fairly written on a thin Wafer, with Ink compoſed of a Cephalick Tincture. This the Student was to ſwallow upon a faſting Stomach, and for three days following eat nothing but Bread and Water. As the Wafer digeſted, the Tincture mounted to his Brain, bearing the Propoſition along with it.

   • 1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review‎, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y., London: Wiley & Putnam, , →OCLC, page 144:

     And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, / That I scarce was sure I heard you […]

   • , J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

     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 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 1, stanza VI, page 48:

     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, published 1993, page 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?

• Craces, arcsec

scarce

1. Alternative form of sarse