scarce
Definitions
General English
- adjective if something is scarce, there is much less of it than you need
General Science
- adjective not available in sufficient amounts
Commerce
- adjective not easily found or not common
Economics
- Available in small supply; opposite of abundant. Usually meaningful only in relative terms, compared to demand and/or to supply at another place or time. See factor abundance, factor scarcity.
Origin & History of “scarce”
Scarce comes via Anglo-Norman scars, earlier escars, from vulgar Latin *excarpsus ‘picked out’, hence ‘rare’. this was the past participle of *excarpere, an alteration of classical Latin excerpere ‘picked out. select’ (source of English excerpt (17th c.)). And excerpere was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and carpere ‘pluck’ (source of English carpet and related to harvest).
