famishment

From famish +‎ -ment.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfæmɪʃmənt/

famishment (countable and uncountable, plural famishments)

1. (now literary) The state or process of being famished.

   Synonyms: hunger, inanition, malnourishment, starvation

   • c. 1605, John Davies, Wittes Pilgrimage, “I said unto Laughter, what art thou mad?”

     Sith you will not attend true Wisedoms Words,

     Laugh and bee fatt, sith al you touch is Gold,

     Though that foode your Soules famishment affordes.

   • 1838, Authentic Narrative of James Williams, an American Slave, Boston: Isaac Knapp, Appendix, p. 106,

     […] among the French planters, the slaves are in a condition of almost utter famishment during the great portion of the year.

   • 1957, James Purdy, “The Pupil” in The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy, New York: Liveright, 2013, p. 682,

     As the young Cuban tasted his flesh, his tropical appetite long depressed by the North American dryness suddenly revived, and brought to his mind the thought of his long famishment.

   • 1991, Ben Okri, The Famished Road, New York: Nan A. Talese, 1992, Section  1, Book 5, Chapter 2, p. 329,

     He churned the emptiness of my stomach, and stirred the fury of my famishment.

2. (obsolete) Famine.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], OCLC 762018299, Mark xiij:[8], folio lxiiij, verso:

     And there ſhalbe erthquakes / in all quarters / and famyſſhment / and troubles.