scarce
英検2級・TOEFL・大学受験乏しい・不足して、乏しい・不足した
意味
- 《補語にのみ用いて》(物が)乏しい,不足した
- まれな,珍しい
- =scarcely
例文
Good fruit is scarce in winter, and costs a lot.
良質の果物が冬には不足し、値段も高くなる。
When goods are scarce, sellers have the advantage.
品物が少ないときには売り手が有利だ。
Telephone booths are very scarce around here.
このあたりは電話ボックスがとても少ない。
語源
英語の原文（Wiktionary）
From Middle English scars, scarse, 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. Compare Middle Dutch schaers (“scarce”), Middle Dutch schaers (“a pair of shears, plowshare”), scheeren (“to shear”).