paucity
noun

- the fact that there is too little of something

- the presence of something in only small or insufficient quantities or amounts

Cambridge Dictionary / Oxford Languages

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WORD ORIGIN

The word "paucity" comes from the Latin word paucitas meaning "fewness, scarcity, a small number” and entered English in the early 17th century.

Further back, the Proto-Indo-European root pau- meaning "few, little" also gave rise to words like "pauvre” and “poor”.

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VITAMIN D PAUCITY

Vitamin D is an essential for bone metabolism and is involved in many other physiological processes. Recent meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have consistently shown that daily supplementation with vitamin D lowers cancer mortality by approximately 13% in older adults.

During the winter months in places like northern Europe and Canada, getting enough vitamin D from the weakened sunlight isn't possible, regardless of how pale your skin is.

Unfortunately, very few people manage to get enough vitamin D through their diet, which is not surprising — to meet your daily dietary needs for vitamin D from food alone, you would have to consume fifteen eggs or about six pounds (almost three kilos) of Swiss cheese every day. Alternatively, a more reasonable option, though perhaps not tastier, would be to take half a tablespoon of cod liver oil.

It's estimated that around 50 percent of people worldwide have a deficiency in vitamin D for at least part of the year. In northern areas, this deficiency might be as high as 90 percent.

(adapted from 'The Body' by Bill Bryson)

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SYNONYMS

barrenness, dearth, deficiency, diminished numbers, dwindling, few, fewness, frugality, hardly any, impoverishment, inadequacy, insufficiency, lack, lamentable insufficiency, little, littleness, low supply, meagreness, not enough, paltriness, PAUCITY, reduced numbers, scantiness, scarceness, scarce supply, shortage, skimpiness, slimness, slim pickings, small number (quantity, supply), sparseness, thinness, thin supply, tightness, trifling (amount), undersupply, unhealthy state, virtual absence, you could count them on one hand

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“The best cooks can turn a PAUCITY of ingredients into a gourmet feast.”

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