Etymology

deficit good

Today it means: A commodity which was chronically difficult for citizens of the Soviet Union to obtain; particularly one which was considered a necessity or only a very basic luxury in the West, such as toilet paper or a car. Full definition →

Russian дефици́тный това́р
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The story

  1. Russian · calque ofдефици́тный това́р“scarce commodity”
  2. English todaydeficit good

Calque of Russian дефици́тный това́р (deficítnyj továr, “scarce commodity”, literally “deficit good”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.