Etymology

dearth

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Today it means: A period or condition when food is rare and hence expensive; famine. Full definition →

Middle English derth ← Old English *dīerþ ← Proto-West Germanic *diuriþu
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*diuriþō“costliness, preciousness, honour”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*diuriþu
  3. Old English · inherited from*dīerþ
  4. Middle English · inherited fromderth
  5. English todaydearth

First attested at least as early as the late 1300s, and appearing in Tyndale’s Pentateuch (1530) as well as the Coverdale Bible (1535). From Middle English derth, derthe, derþe, probably from Old English *dīerþ, *dīerþu, from Proto-West Germanic *diuriþu, from Proto-Germanic *diuriþō (“costliness, preciousness, honour”); corresponding to dear + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Old Saxon diuriða (“glory, honour; preciousness”), West Frisian djoerte (“love, dearness, value, worth”), Dutch duurte (“dearness; scarcity, dearth”), Icelandic dýrð (“honour, glory”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.