scant, adj.
Entered English in the mid 14th century from a Scandinavian source, probably Old Norse skamt, meaning "short or brief".
The adjective form entered simultaneously with the noun form (meaning "a scarcity"), but the verb and adverb forms (meaning "to be deficient" and "scarcely" respectively) did not arise until the mid 15th century.
The noun, verb, and adverb forms of this word are mostly archaic and/or extinct at this point in Modern English.











