Etymologically
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rarity

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɹæɹɪtɪ/[1]
  • UK: /ˈɹɛəɹəti/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rarite,[2][3] borrowed from Middle French rarité, also rareté, and directly borrowed from Latin rāritās (“looseness of texture, sparseness, infrequency”),[4][3][5][2] from rārus (“loose in texture, thin; rare”) and the suffix -tās.[4][6][7] The Latin adjective is the source of rare.[4][8] The French noun is recorded from 1314 for looseness of texture and porosity, later in the 15th and 16th centuries also for infrequency and for a rare object;[4] the OED compares Old Occitan raritat, Catalan raritat and Spanish raridad, all from the 14th century.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Thinness of texture, the condition of having little density, especially of air: first recorded probably before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.[4] The MED also has it for the thinness of air, the porosity of glandular flesh and the narrowness of the shoulders,[2] and Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense of the Latin word came first, and in the 16th century, as in French, rarity came to be used for fewness and infrequency (1542), for exceptional character, especially excellence (1566), and for a rare thing or event, valued for being uncommon (about 1594).[4][3] In medicine it was used from 1583 to 1769 for the infrequency of the pulse.[4] Johnson (1755) gave only two senses, uncommonness and a thing valued for its scarcity, with quotations from the Spectator and King Lear.[9] The old physical sense survives mainly of thin air.[5][4]

Timeline

  • c. 1425 – thinness of composition, especially of air.[4][2]
  • 1542 – relative fewness, infrequency.[4] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1550s.[3]
  • 1566 – unusual character, especially excellence.[4]
  • 1583 – of the pulse, infrequency (obsolete by 1769).[4]
  • c. 1594 – a rare thing or occurrence, valued for being uncommon.[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A rare person or thing, especially one valued because it is uncommon: The stamp is a rarity among collectors.[10][7][4]
  2. The quality or fact of being rare; infrequency or scarcity: the rarity of snow in the region.[10][7][4]
  3. (rare) Thinness of texture; low density, especially of air.[4][5]
  • rare
  • rarely
  • rarefy
  • rareness

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins