- Today's Word
Uffishness
[UFF-ish-ness]
Definition
- (adjective) A state of being irritated, annoyed, or out of sorts. It often describes a general feeling of discontent or peevishness, without a specific cause or reason.
Example
After a long day of dealing with difficult customers and a frustrating commute, Martha arrived home in a state of uffishness, ready to snap at anyone who crossed her path.
Fun Fact
The term “uffishness” is believed to have originated from the Scottish dialect word “ouff,” which means to express disgust or disapproval. The suffix “-ish” is added to describe the state or quality of being “ouff,” while “-ness” denotes the overall condition or feeling.
(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.