Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - famine

 noun  Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from feim, faim hunger, from Latin fames  Date: 14th century  1. an extreme scarcity of food  2. archaic starvation  3. archaic a ravenous appetite  4. a great shortage FAMISH  verb  Etymology: Middle English, probably alteration of famen, from Anglo-French afamer, from Vulgar Latin *affamare, from Latin ad- + fames  Date: 15th century  transitive verb  1. to cause to suffer severely from hunger  2. archaic to cause to starve to death  intransitive verb  1. archaic starve  2. to suffer for lack of something necessary a moment when French poetry in particular was ~ing for such invention — T. S. Eliot  • ~ment noun