quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- famine
- famine: [14] Both famine and famish [14] come ultimately from Latin famēs ‘hunger’. Its Vulgar Latin derivative *faminis produced Old French famine, source of English famine. Famish has come via a more circuitous route: another Vulgar Latin derivative of famēs was *affamāre, a compound verb formed with the prefix ad- ‘towards’; in Old French this became afamer, which was borrowed into Middle English, with loss of its first syllable, as fame ‘starve’; and before long this had the suffix -ish added to it, on the model of other verbs such as abolish and diminish.
=> famish - famine (n.)
- mid-14c., from Old French famine "famine, starvation" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *famina, from Latin fames "hunger, starvation, famine," which is of unknown origin.
- famish (v.)
- "cause to hunger," c. 1400, famyschen, "alteration of famen (late 14c.), a shortening of Old French afamer (12c., Modern French affamer), from Vulgar Latin *affamare "to bring to hunger," from ad famem, from Latin fames "hunger" (see famine).
Ending changed mid-14c. to -ish under influence of ravish, anguish, etc. It also once had an intransitive sense and was so used by Shakespeare and Milton. Related: Famished; famishing. - famished
- "Extremely hungry", Late Middle English: past participle of the verb famish, from Middle English fame 'starve', from Old French afamer, based on Latin fames 'hunger'.