rare

English Online Dictionary. What means rare‎? What does rare mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɛə(ɹ)/
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): [ɹɜɹ]
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɹɛɚ/, /ɹɛɹ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɹeː/
• (New Zealand, without the cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /ɹeə/
• (New Zealand, cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /ɹiə/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ɹeɹ/
• (Lancashire, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /ɹɜː(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• Homophone: rear (cheer–chair merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English rare, from Old French rare, rere (“rare, uncommon”), from Latin rārus (“loose, spaced apart, thin, infrequent”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“friable, thin”). Replaced native Middle English gesen (“rare, scarce”) (from Old English gǣsne), Middle English seld (“rare, uncommon”) (from Old English selden), and Middle English seldscene (“rare, rarely seen, infrequent”) (from Old English seldsēne).

Adjective

rare (comparative rarer, superlative rarest)

1. Very uncommon; scarce.

   Synonyms: scarce, selcouth, seld, selly, geason, uncommon; see also Thesaurus:rare

   Antonyms: common, frequent; see also Thesaurus:common
2. (of a gas) Thin; of low density.
3. (UK, slang) Good; enjoyable.
   • 1981, Chris Difford (lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocal), "Vanity Fair" (song):

     Sees her reflection in a butcher shop.

     She finds it all quite rare

     That her meat's all vanity fair.

Derived terms

Related terms

• rarity

Translations

Noun

rare (plural rares)

1. (gaming) A scarce or uncommon item.

Etymology 2

From a dialectal variant of rear, from Middle English rere, from Old English hrēr, hrēre (“not thoroughly cooked, underdone, lightly boiled”), from hrēran (“to move, shake, agitate”), from Proto-Germanic *hrōzijaną (“to stir”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱroHs- (“to mix, stir, cook”). Related to Old English hrōr (“stirring, busy, active, strong, brave”). More at rear.

Alternative forms

• reer, rere (UK)

Adjective

rare (comparative rarer or more rare, superlative rarest or most rare)

1. (cooking) Particularly of meat, especially beefsteak: cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red.

   Antonym: well done

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Variant of rear.

Verb

rare (third-person singular simple present rares, present participle raring, simple past and past participle rared)

1. (US, intransitive) To rear, rise up, start backwards.
2. (US, transitive) To rear, bring up, raise.

Usage notes

• Principal current, non-literary use is of the present participle raring with a verb in "raring to". The principal verb in that construction is go. Thus, raring to go ("eager (to start something)") is the expression in which rare is most often encountered as a verb.

Etymology 4

Compare rather, rath.

Adjective

rare (comparative more rare, superlative most rare)

1. (obsolete) Early.

References

• Rare in The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

Anagrams

• arré, rear

Danish

Adjective

rare

1. plural and definite singular attributive of rar

Dutch

Alternative forms

• raren (Brabant)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈraː.rə/

Adjective

rare

1. inflection of raar:
   1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
   2. definite neuter singular attributive
   3. plural attributive

Noun

rare m (plural raren, diminutive rareke n)

1. weird person

   Synonym: rare vogel

References

• [1]

French

Etymology

Borrowed (in this form) from Latin rārus. Compare the inherited Old French rer, rere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁaʁ/ ~ /ʁɑʁ/

Adjective

rare (plural rares)

1. rare

Derived terms

Further reading

• “rare”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• erra

German

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aːʁə

Adjective

rare

1. inflection of rar:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Ido

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈrare/

Adverb

rare

1. rarely

   Antonyms: freque, ofte

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈra.re/
• Rhymes: -are
• Hyphenation: rà‧re

Adjective

rare

1. feminine plural of raro

Anagrams

• -arre, -rrea, erra

Latin

Etymology 1

From rārus +‎ -ē.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈraː.reː/, [ˈräːreː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈra.re/, [ˈräːre]

Adverb

rārē (comparative rārius, superlative rārissimē)

1. thinly, sparsely, here and there
2. rarely, seldom

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈraː.re/, [ˈräːrɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈra.re/, [ˈräːre]

Adjective

rāre

1. vocative masculine singular of rārus

References

• “rare”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• rare in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• rere

Etymology

From Old French rer and Latin rārus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈraːr(ə)/, /ˈrɛːr(ə)/

Adjective

rare

1. airy, vacuous
2. porous, breathable
3. sparsely spread
4. rare, uncommon, scarce
5. small, little

Related terms

• rarefien

Descendants

• English: rare
• Yola: rare

References

• “rār(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-29.

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rārus.

Adjective

rare m or f

1. (Jersey) rare

Derived terms

• rarement (“rarely”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

rare

1. inflection of rar:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

rare

1. inflection of rar:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

Swedish

Adjective

rare

1. definite natural masculine singular of rar

Anagrams

• rear

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English rare, from Old French rer, from Latin rārus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /raːr/

Adjective

rare

1. rare

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 116