exiguity

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English[edit]

WOTD – 23 November 2018

Etymology[edit]

From Middle French exiguite, from Late Latin exiguitas. See exiguous.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

exiguity (usually uncountable, plural exiguities)

  1. The quality of being meagre or scanty.
    Synonyms: exiguousness, meagreness, scantiness
    • 1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter III.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 136:
      The exiguity and ſmallneſſe of ſome ſeeds extending to large productions is one of the magnalities of nature, ſomewhat illuſtrating the work of the Creation, and vaſt production from nothing.
    • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:
      Of the nature of Mr. Knott himself Watt remained in particular ignorance. Of the many excellent reasons for this, two seemed to Watt to merit mention: on the one hand the exiguity of the material propounded to his senses, and on the other the decay of these.
    • 1986, Manuel J. Vilares, “Macroeconomic Models with Quantity Rationing”, in Structural Change in Macroeconomic Models: Theory and Estimation (Advanced Studies in Theoretical and Applied Econometrics; 6), Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, →DOI, →ISBN, section 1.4.3 (The Exiguity of the Accounting Framework), page 59:
      We have yet to treat the exiguity of the accounting framework and this exiguity draws away the interest to any empirical utilisation.
    • 1991, Robert N. Swanson, “Standard of Livings: Parochial Revenues in Pre-Reformation England”, in Christopher Harper-Bill, editor, Religious Belief and Ecclesiastical Careers in Late Medieval England: Proceedings of the Conference Held at Strawberry Hill, Easter 1989 (Studies in the History of Medieval Religion; 3), Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, Boydell & Brewer, →ISBN, page 176:
      However, despite its exiguity, the vicarage did maintain an independent existence as a benefice, and the College continued to make presentations to the bishop of Worcester.
    • 2002, Martin Bruegel, “Exchange and the Creation of the Neighborhood in the Late Eighteenth Century”, in Farm, Shop, Landing: The Rise of a Market Society in the Hudson Valley, 1780–1860, Durham, N.C., London: Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 21:
      Some undertakings, however, required so much manpower that farmers had to recruit their neighbors. […] These collaborations integrated the neighborhood and established it as more than a mere locality where farmers happened to live. They were one means by which to rise above exiguities and weather the turbulences in a precarious world.

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

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