Other forms: shortages
A shortage is less than is needed. A shortage of staff, a water shortage, no shortage of opinions.
No shortage of is a common ironic phrase meaning there is far too much. A shortage is not the same as scarcity: a shortage is a gap between supply and what is wanted now, and it can be created by hoarding as readily as by any failure of supply.
1nounshortageLess than is needed.
“There's a shortage of nurses in many hospitals.”
shortage is a lack.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)ker-
Middle English
schort
English
short
English, today
shortage
Built from
From short + -age. short comes from Middle English schort. From Middle English schort, short, from Old English sċeort, sċort (“short”), from Proto-West Germanic skurt, from Proto-Germanic skurtaz (“short”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)ker-. a doublet of shirt and skirt and curt. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA