Word of the Day : January 17, 2018

famish \FAM-ish\ verb

Definition

1 : to cause to suffer severely from hunger

2 : to suffer for lack of something necessary

Did You Know?

Famish likely developed as an alteration of Middle English famen, meaning "to starve." The Middle English word was borrowed from the Anglo-French verb afamer, which etymologists believe came from Vulgar Latin affamare. We say "believe" because, while no written evidence has yet been found for the Vulgar Latin word affamare, it would be the expected source for the Anglo-French verb based on the combination of the Latin prefix ad- ("to" or "toward") and the root noun fames ("hunger"). In contemporary English, the verb famish is still used on occasion, but it is considerably less common than the related adjective famished, which usually means "hungry" or "starving" but can also mean "needy" or "being in want."

Learn a new word every day, delivered to your inbox!

Test Your Vocabulary



  Winter Words Quiz






    Another word for ‘a person who travels to an area of warmth and sun, especially in winter’ is a:




                                  gudgeon
                                  gull
                                  gulpin
                                  sunseeker







    Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
    TAKE THE QUIZ





    Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.
    TAKE THE QUIZ

Aired January 17, 2018

All Merriam-Webster content is available at www.merriam-webster.com