Exiguous

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɪɡˈzɪ.ɡju.əs/

Definitions

1. Scanty, meager, or inadequate in amount or extent
2. Barely sufficient in quantity or magnitude, falling short of what is needed or desired
3. Extremely limited or sparse in supply, leaving little to work with

Etymology: The adjective "exiguous" carries an unexpected twist: its Latin ancestor "exiguus" originally meant "strict" or "exact," not small. The idea of smallness grew out of a sense of being measured closely. "Exiguus" came from "exigere," which meant "to measure against a standard," built from "ex-" (out) and "agere" (to drive or do). Something carefully weighed or gauged was, by that logic, precise, and over time a thing that is scrupulously measured tends to be a thing held to a tight limit, and so small. The English word follows that narrowing path. It was borrowed from Latin with the sense of meagre or scanty, and the notion of strictness fell away entirely, leaving only the sense of a very small quantity. Modern dictionaries define it simply as a very small amount, so a reader meeting it today rarely suspects that its original meaning concerned exactness rather than scarcity.

Synonyms: scanty, meager, insufficient, slight, limited

Antonyms: abundant, ample, plentiful, generous, sufficient