sparse (spars)

[ It. spargere = Sp. esparcir = Pg. espargir, scatter): see sparge. Cf. sparse, v., sperse, dispers disperse.] 1. Thinly scattered; dispersed round about; existing at considerable intervals; as used of population or the like, not dense. [ Sparse has been regarded, falsely, as an American ism, and has been objected to as being exactly equiv alent to scattered, and therefore unnece ary. As a merely qualifying adjective, however, it is free from the po ible ambiguity inherent in the participial form and consequent verbal implication of scattered.] A sparse remnant of yellow leaves falling slowly athwart the dark evergreens. George Eliot, Middle march, ix. The sparse populations of new districts. Sir C. W. Dilke , Probs. of Greater Britain, ii. 1. Halley was one of the first to discu the po ible luminosity of sparse ma es of matter in space. ses of matter in SpaceXXVI. 788. 2. In bot., scattered; placed distantly or irregularly without any apparent or regular order: applied to branches, leaves, peduncles, etc. 3. In zoöl., spare or remote, as spots or other markings; scattered irregularly; few or scanty, as hairs or other appendages.