Starve
/stɑːrv/noun
To suffer or die from lack of food; to be very hungry.
Did you know?In Old English, the ancestor of starve meant simply “to die,” and the hunger-specific meaning narrowed later, which is why the word still feels so absolute and fatal.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ster-
“to stiffen, become rigid”
Old English
OE
steorfan
“to die”
Middle English
ME
sterven
“to die; later, especially to die of hunger”
16th Century
English
starve
“to die, especially from hunger or exposure”
Modern English
English
starve
“to suffer or die from lack of food”