famishment
English
Etymology
From famish + -ment.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈfæmɪʃmənt/
Noun
famishment (countable and uncountable, plural famishments)
- (now literary) The state or process of being famished.
- Synonyms: hunger, inanition, malnourishment, starvation
- c. 1605, John Davies, Wittes Pilgrimage, “I said unto Laughter, what art thou mad?”
- Sith you will not attend true Wisedoms Words,
- Laugh and bee fatt, sith al you touch is Gold,
- Though that foode your Soules famishment affordes.
- 1838, Authentic Narrative of James Williams, an American Slave, Boston: Isaac Knapp, Appendix, p. 106,
- […] among the French planters, the slaves are in a condition of almost utter famishment during the great portion of the year.
- 1957, James Purdy, “The Pupil” in The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy, New York: Liveright, 2013, p. 682,
- As the young Cuban tasted his flesh, his tropical appetite long depressed by the North American dryness suddenly revived, and brought to his mind the thought of his long famishment.
- 1991, Ben Okri, The Famished Road, New York: Nan A. Talese, 1992, Section 1, Book 5, Chapter 2, p. 329,
- He churned the emptiness of my stomach, and stirred the fury of my famishment.
- (obsolete) Famine.
- 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], OCLC 762018299, Mark xiij:[8], folio lxiiij, verso:
- And there ſhalbe erthquakes / in all quarters / and famyſſhment / and troubles.
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