Paucity vs Scanty - What's the difference?
paucity | scanty |
Fewness in number; too few.
* 1915 , , The Golden Slipper , problem 7:
* 2006 , Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, "
A smallness in size or amount that is insufficient; meagerness, dearth.
* 1898 , , "At the Appetite-Cure":
* 1915 , , Michael O'Halloran , ch. 12:
Somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent.
* {{quote-book, year=1864–1865, author=Charles Dickens, title=
, passage=Present on the table, one scanty' pot of tea, one '''scanty''' loaf, two '''scanty''' pats of butter, two ' scanty rashers of bacon, two pitiful eggs, and an abundance of handsome china bought a secondhand bargain.}}
* {{quote-book, year=1979, author=by B. Jonson, title=
, passage=Traditions older than paleoarctic, as scanty as the evidence may be, show clearly that colonization of Alberta and even as far north as southern Alaska came from the south.}}
Sparing; niggardly; parsimonious.
* I. Watts.
As a noun paucity
is fewness in number; too few.As an adjective scanty is
somewhat less than is needed in amplitude or extent.paucity
English
Noun
- But when I had crossed the threshold, I was astonished at the paucity of facts to be gleaned from the inmates themselves.
Uncle Sam Wants You," Time , 13 July:
- Your tax refund might be late, owing to a paucity of number crunchers.
- Now came shipwrecks and life in open boats, with the usual paucity of food.
- Here is where the paucity of our language is made manifest.
Synonyms
* dearth, scantiness, scarcityExternal links
* * *scanty
English
Adjective
(er)- In illustrating a point of difficulty, be not too scanty of words.