paucity
nounUK /ˈpɒs.ɪ.ti/ · US /ˈpɔs.ɪ.ti/
Etymology From Middle English paucete, paucite, paucyte, partly from Middle French paucité and partly from its etymon, Latin paucitās (“a small number, fewness, scarcity”), from paucus (“few, little”). Related to few.
1
Fewness in number; too few.
- But when I had crossed the threshold, I was astonished at the paucity of facts to be gleaned from the inmates themselves.1915, Anna Katharine Green, The Golden Slipper, problem 7:
- For sheer paucity of railway facilities, probably the record in Great Britain is held by the Scottish county of Nairn, which has about eight miles of railway and two stations—Nairn and Auldearn.1959 October 23, “Counties with Few Stations”, in Railway Magazine, page 662:
3 more examples
- This paucity of trains helps to explain why electrification is not planned between Paris and Belfort.1963 January, “Beyond the Channel: France”, in Modern Railways, page 60:
- Your tax refund might be late, owing to a paucity of number crunchers.2006 July 13, Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman, “Uncle Sam Wants You”, in Time, archived from the original on 10 Oct 2009:
- I have always argued that despite my opposition to rail privatisation, I should be grateful that John Major won the 1992 election on a platform to sell off the railways, as otherwise my column would have disappeared given the paucity of things to write about.2024 January 10, Christian Wolmar, “A time for change? ... just as it was back in issue 262”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 60:
2
A smallness in size or amount that is insufficient; meagerness, dearth.
- It cannot be denied it [the chameleon] is (if not the moſt of any) a very abſtemious animall, and ſuch as by reaſon of its frigidity, paucity of bloud, and latitancy in the winter (about which time the obſervations are often made) will long ſubſist without a viſible ſuſtentation.1650, Thomas Browne, “Of the Cameleon”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 133:
- Now came shipwrecks and life in open boats, with the usual paucity of food.1898, Mark Twain, At the Appetite-Cure:
3 more examples
- Here is where the paucity of our language is made manifest.1915, Gene Stratton-Porter, chapter 12, in Michael O'Halloran:
- Genteel America was handicapped by meagerness of soul, thinness of temper, paucity of talent.1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 407:
- There are also texts that present more lengthy lists, of between ten and thirty examples, and in doing so include some less common terms. But, on the whole, there is at present a paucity of information about these terms.2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 2:
- Synonyms
- fewness, dearth, scantiness, scarcity