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Dearth
Definitions
- 1 A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine. countable, uncountable
- 2 an insufficient quantity or number wordnet
- 3 Scarcity; a lack or short supply. broadly, countable, uncountable
"I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily: as of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what."
- 4 an acute insufficiency wordnet
- 5 Dearness; the quality of being rare or costly. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"Whatsoever doth remaine for money, let Money-mongers, supply when they will. And I referre to Politicians to dispute among themselves whether the dearth of all things which most complaine of doeth proceede from plenty of gold and silver since the late discoveries, or from Monopolies, and combinations of Merchants and Craftsmen, or from Transportation of graine, or from pleasure of great personages, which doe most highly rate such things as they most like, or excesse in private persons, or to all these conjointly."
- 1 To cause or produce a scarcity in something. dated, obsolete, transitive
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”).
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”).
See also for "dearth"
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