very few; very little; scant
Formal or literary term used to emphasize a small quantity or number. Often appears in written language or formal speech.
Information on this issue is very scarce.
We must make effective use of the scant resources.
Standard kanji form for this formal/literary word.
Variant kanji form; 鮮少 is more common.
鮮 is used in its Classical Chinese sense “few, rare,” reinforced by 少, “few”; the compound therefore means “scant” or “very few.”