sparse

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sparsus.

adj

1. Having widely spaced intervals.
   a sparse array, index, or matrix
   The Leicester to Grimsby service will become hourly throughout (with some extensions to Cleethorpes as at present), while a new hourly Peterborough to Doncaster service via Spalding, Sleaford and Lincoln will join up two routes with a sparse service at present. 2019 October, Tony Miles, Philip Sherratt, “EMR kicks off new era”, in Modern Railways, page 58
2. Not dense; meager; scanty
3. (mathematics) Having few nonzero elements

verb

1. (obsolete) To disperse, to scatter.
   They began properly to ſparſe pretye rumours in the North, that no man ſhulde eate whyte breade, no man eate pygge, gooſe, or capon, without he agreed before with the kynge. 1536, [Richard Morison], A Remedy for Sedition, London: […] Thomae Bertheleti[…], →OCLC, signature F. i.