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Origin and history of rare

rare(adj.1)

[thin, few, unusual] late 14c., "thin, airy, porous" (opposed to dense); mid-15c., "few in number and widely separated, sparsely distributed, seldom found, very infrequent;" from Old French rer, rere "sparse" (14c.) and directly from Latin rarus "thinly sown, having a loose texture; not thick; having intervals between, full of empty spaces" (antonym of densus). Sometimes reconstructed to be from a PIE root *ere- "to separate; adjoin."

"Having the particles not close together," hence "few in number," hence, "unusual." Sense of "remarkable from uncommonness," especially "uncommonly good" is from late 15c. (Caxton). Related: Rareness. In chemistry, rare earth is from 1818.

Rare implies that only few of the kind exist : as, perfect diamonds are rare. Scarce properly implies a previous or usual condition of greater abundance. Rare means that there are much fewer of a kind to be found than may be found where scarce would apply. [Century Dictionary, 1895]

also from late 14c.

rare(adj.2)

[undercooked] 1650s, a variant of Middle English rere, from Old English hrere "lightly cooked," probably related to hreran "to stir, move, shake, agitate," from Proto-Germanic *hrorjan, which is reconstructed to be from PIE root *kere- "to mix, confuse; cook" (source also of Greek kera- "to mix," krasis "mixture"). Germanic cognates include Old Frisian hrera "to stir, move," Old Saxon hrorian, Dutch roeren, German rühren, Old Norse hroera.

Originally of eggs, in reference to meat from 1784, and, according to OED (1989), in this sense "formerly often regarded as an Americanism, although it was current in many English dialects ... and used by English writers in the first half of the 19th c."

also from 1650s

rare(v.)

"rise up on the hind legs," as a horse, lion, etc., 1833, dialectal variant of rear (v.1). Sense of "eager" (in raring to go) is recorded by 1909. Related: Rared; raring.

also from 1833

Entries linking to rare

rear(v.1)

Middle English reren, from Old English ræran "to raise, lift something, cause to rise;" also "to build up, create, set on end; to arouse, excite, stir up," from Proto-Germanic *raizijanau "to raise," causative of *risanan "to rise" (source of Old English risan; see rise (v.)). The second -r- is by rhotacism.

Meaning "bring into being, bring up" (as a child) is recorded by early 15c., perhaps late 14c.; at first it is not easy to distinguish the sense from simply "beget;" the meaning "bring up (animals or persons) by proper nourishment and attention, develop or train physically or mentally" had developed by late 16c.

The intransitive meaning "raise up on the hind legs" is first recorded late 14c. (compare rare (v.)). As what one does in raising or holding high the head, by 1667 ("Rear'd high thir flourisht heads" - Milton); with ugly by 1851. Related: Reared; rearing.

Other uses of rear in Middle English were "set" (fire); "draw" (blood); "wage" (war); "raise" (revenue, tithes); "gather, collect" (a flock of sheep).

bat(n.2)

flying mouse-like mammal (order Chiroptera), 1570s, a dialectal alteration of Middle English bakke (early 14c.), which is probably related to Old Swedish natbakka, Old Danish nathbakkæ "night bat," and Old Norse leðrblaka "bat," literally "leather flapper," from Proto-Germanic *blak-, from PIE root *bhlag- "to strike" (see flagellum).

If so, the original sense of the animal name likely was "flapper." The shift from -k- to -t- may have come through confusion of bakke with Latin blatta "moth, nocturnal insect."

The Old English word for the animal was hreremus, from hreran "to shake" (see rare (adj.2)), and rattle-mouse, an old dialectal word for "bat," is attested from late 16c. Flitter-mouse (1540s) occasionally is used in English (with variants flinder-mouse, flicker-mouse) in imitation of German fledermaus "bat," from Old High German fledaron "to flutter."

As a contemptuous term for an old woman, it is perhaps a suggestion of witchcraft (compare fly-by-night), or from bat as "prostitute who plies her trade by night" [Farmer, who calls it "old slang" and finds French equivalent "night swallow" (hirondelle de nuit) "more poetic"].