Noah Webster
Scarceness
SCARCENESS,
SCARCITY, noun
1. Smallness of quantity, or smallness in proportion to the wants or demands; deficiency defeat of plenty; penury; as a scarcity of grain; a great scarcity of beauties; a scarcity of lovely women.
Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value to its scarcity.
A scarcity of snow would raise a mutiny at Naples.
2. Rareness; infrequency.
The value of an advantage is enhanced by its scarceness
Root of scarcity, the mangold-wurzel, a variety of the white beet.