Etymologically
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starvation

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /stɑːˈveɪʃən/[1]
  • US: /stɑɹˈveɪʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English starve + -ation.[2][3][4][5] Klein and Etymonline call it a hybrid, a native Germanic verb with a suffix that goes back to Latin -ātiō;[5][6] Etymonline notes it as one of the earliest uses of -ation with a native word, after flirtation, on the false analogy of pairs such as vex and vexation.[6] starve is from Old English steorfan (“to die”),[7][6][8] from Proto-Germanic *sterbaną (“to become stiff, die”).[6][9][10] The word is famously, though not certainly, said to have been introduced by Henry Dundas in a Commons debate on American affairs in 1775, which earned him the nickname "Starvation Dundas".[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The condition of suffering and gradual decline from lack of food: 1762, in the Poems on Several Occasions of ‘Claudero’.[2][11] Etymonline dates it from 1778.[6]

Semantic evolution

From 1775 the word also meant the act of starving a person or animal; the OED's first example is from the Public Advertiser of 5 December 1775.[2] Sources disagree whether Dundas's nickname mocked his harsh suggestion of starving the American rebels into submission or the barbarous formation of the word;[6] Horace Walpole wrote in 1781 of "Starvation Dundas, whose pious policy suggested that the devil of rebellion could be expelled only by fasting".[6] Like the verb starve, which could mean to die of cold, starvation was used from 1830 of suffering or death from extreme cold;[2][6] in Scotland and the north of England "to die in a snow-storm is called starvation".[12] From 1834 it was used colloquially to intensify an adjective, as in Kipling's starvation cheap (1892).[2][13] The wider sense, a lack of something essential, especially a chemical element needed for growth, is from 1866, in Huxley.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 1762 – suffering from lack of food.[2][11]
  • 1775 – the act of starving someone.[2]
  • 1775 – attributed to Henry Dundas in the House of Commons.[6]
  • 1830 – suffering or death from extreme cold.[2]
  • 1834 – colloquial intensifier, to the point of starvation.[2]
  • 1866 – lack of something essential.[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Suffering or death caused by lack of food: Thousands faced starvation after the harvest failed.[14][11][2]
  2. The act of starving a person or animal, depriving them of food.[2][11][14]
  3. A lack of something essential: oxygen starvation.[2][3]
  4. As a modifier: barely enough to live on: starvation wages.[14]
  5. (Scotland, northern England) Extreme cold.[2][12]

Adverb

  1. (colloquial) Extremely, to the point of starvation: starvation cold.[2][13][12]

Word family

  • semistarvation

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins