- Today's Word
Pariah
puh-RY-uh
Definition
- (noun) A person who is rejected or ostracized by society or a particular group; an outcast.
Example
After exposing the company’s unethical practices, he became a pariah in the corporate world, shunned by colleagues who feared association with him.
Fun Fact
The word “pariah” comes from the Tamil word paraiyar, which referred to a hereditary group of drummers in southern India who were considered social outcasts under the caste system. The term entered English during British colonial rule in India and evolved into a metaphor for anyone who is marginalized or excluded. Interestingly, its adoption into English reflects the cultural intersections and linguistic exchanges of colonial history, highlighting how specific cultural practices can influence broader language usage.
(noun) A severe lack or scarcity of something; an inadequate supply that falls critically short of what is needed.
The report revealed a striking dearth of qualified candidates — not because the field lacked talent, but because decades of underfunding had quietly hollowed out the pipeline entirely.
Dearth derives from the Old English dēorþ, meaning “dearness” or “costliness” — rooted in dēore, meaning “dear” or “precious.” The original sense was economic: something so scarce it had become expensive, its rarity driving up its price. It entered Middle English as derthe, used specifically to describe famines and food shortages, before broadening into its modern sense of any critical scarcity. The word carries its economic origin quietly — the idea that what is scarce becomes dear, and what is dear reveals a dearth.