dearth

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English derthe,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} probably inherited from Old English *dēorþu (“costliness”), a form the American Heritage Dictionary reconstructs;^[5] the OED and Weekley note that the word is not recorded in Old English.^[2][7] It is an abstract noun formed from dēore (“precious, costly”), the source of dear, with the suffix -th.^{[2][3][4][8][9]} The same formation is found across Germanic, though with other senses:^[3] Old Saxon diuriđa (“splendour, glory, love”), Middle Dutch dierte (modern Dutch duurte), Old High German tiurida (“glory”), Middle High German tiurde (“great value, costliness”) and Old Norse dýrð (“glory”),^[2][4][3][8] from Proto-Germanic *diuriþō.^[1][4] Weekley held that the sense of scarcity must have grown out of costliness, comparing German Teuerung from teuer (“dear”),^[7] and Etymonline explains the link by food being costly in a famine because it is scarce.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A time when food is scarce and dear, a famine: before 1325, in Genesis and Exodus (composed about 1250).^[2] Etymonline dates it c. 1300 and Barnhart probably about 1300, both with the sense of scarcity of food.^[3][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the 13th century and Dictionary.com 1200–50.^[6][10]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart assumes an original sense of costliness, but the English word first refers to famine, when food is scarce and costly.^[4] It was extended to a scarcity of anything about 1330 according to Barnhart, and by the mid-14th century according to Etymonline; the OED's first quotation for this sense is in the Ayenbite of Inwyt (1340).^[4][3][2] Around 1400 the poem Pearl uses it once for glory or splendour, like the Old Norse word.^[2] Chaucer and Gower use derthe for dearth or costliness,^[11] and the sense "dearness, high price" is recorded from 1604 to 1793.^[2][6] A verb dearth, to make dear or scarce, was used from about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, to 1743.^[2][6] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as scarcity that makes food dear, quoting Bacon.^[12] Weekley points out that the Prayer Book's prayer "in the Time of Dearth and Famine" sets scarcity and dearth against plenty and cheapness.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1325 – a time of scarcity of food, a famine.^[2]
• 1340 – scarcity or lack of anything.^[2] Barnhart dates the extension about 1330.^[4]
• c. 1400 – glory, splendour (obsolete, rare).^[2]
• c. 1440 – verb, to make dear or scarce (obsolete by 1743).^[2]
• 1604 – dearness, high price (obsolete by 1793).^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A scarce or inadequate supply; a lack: There was a dearth of volunteers for the night shift.^{[13][6][14][2]}
2. A shortage of food; famine.^{[14][6][13][2]}
3. (obsolete, 1604–1793) Dearness; high price.^[2][6]

Verb

1. (obsolete, c. 1440–1743) To make dear in price, or scarce.^[2][6]

Related words

• dear

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin