† scarceheadn.
Obsolete. rare.
Stinginess, niggardliness. Cf. dialect scarceheed ‘scarcity, want’ (F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. 1886).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > retaining > niggardliness or meanness > [noun]
fastship?c1225
scarcenessa1300
scarcity1340
niggardyc1390
nithingheada1400
scarcehead1420
nigonryc1430
niggardship?a1439
pinching1440
straitheadc1450
straitnessc1460
niggard cheap1463
niggardnessc1487
nigonshipa1500
niggardise1502
niggishness1519
niggardliness1556
parsimony1561
illiberality1581
nearness1584
tenacity1586
Euclionism1599
paring1607
servilitya1610
niggeralitya1612
scanting1625
scant-handednessa1627
closefistedness1631
niggardess1632
close-handedness1646
strait-handedness1649
penury1651
unbountifulness1660
parsimoniousness1671
penuriousness1672
stinginess1682
closeness1712
illiberalness1727
meanness1755
cheeseparing1834
scrimping1835
churlishness1846
screwing1848
skinflintism1853
screwiness1856
flint-paring1860
skinflintiness1861
scrimp1864
flint-skinning1873
penny-pinching1895
skimping1898
tight-fistedness1975
1420–2 J. Lydgate Story of Thebes iii, in G. Chaucer Wks. (1561) 369/1 But in his Courte let him first deuise To exile Scarcehed and Couetise.
1566 T. Drant tr. Horace Medicinable Morall sig. Aiiij A niggerde cloune, At whose scarceheade and couetyce The worlde did outas make.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1910; most recently modified version published online September 2019).
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n.1420