Raritas, pe. cor. tâtis, f. g. Plin. Seldonmesse: thinnesse.Mirabilis ratitate. Pli. Maruellous, by reason of the seldomnesse of it.Raritas arborum. Plin. The thinnesse or fewnesse of trees of place.Raritas in pulmonibus.Cic.The spungie hollownesse that in in lights or lungs.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
rārĭtas, ātis, f. [id.], the state of being loose or not dense, looseness of texture, distance apart (good prose). I.Lit.: in pulmonibus inest raritas quaedam et assimilis spongiis mollitudo ad hauriendum spiritum aptissima, Cic. N. D. 2, 55, 136: dentium, Quint. 11, 3, 55: (asini) nec pontes transeunt, per raritatem eorum translucentibus fluviis, Plin. 8, 43, 68, 169.—In plur.: foraminum raritates, Vitr. 2, 5: venarum, id. 8, 3.—II.Transf., small number, fewness, rarity: capillorum,
thinness
, Suet. Oth. 12; cf. superciliorum, Plin. 28, 11, 46, 163: stellarum (opp. multitudo), id. 2, 18, 16, 80: remanentium (hominum), Suet. Aug. 43: exemplorum, Plin. 7, 13, 11, 58; cf. Cels. 7, 14: raritas dictorum distinguet oratorem a scurrā, Cic. de Or. 2, 60, 247; cf. figurarum, Quint. 9, 3, 27: lavandi, Suet. Aug. 82: in raritate videre, Lampr. Elag. 28. — b. Concr., a rarity: Alexandro equi magna raritas contigit, Plin. 8, 42, 64, 154.— In plur.: raritates, Gell. 3, 16, 9.
