STARVATION.
(Vol. ix., p. 54.)
Until your correspondent Q. designated the word starvation as "an Americanism," I never had the least suspicion that it was obtained from that source. On the contrary, I remember to have heard some thirty or forty years ago, that it was first employed by Harry Dundas, the first Viscount Melville, who might have spoken with a brogue, but whose despatches were in good intelligible English. I once asked his son, the second Viscount, whose correctness must be fresh in the recollection of many of your readers, if the above report was true, and he seemed to think that his father had coined the word, and that it immediately got into general circulation. My impression is, that it was already current during the great scarcity at the end of the last, and the commencement of this century; but the dictionary makers, those "who toil at the lower employments of life," as old Sam Johnson termed it, are not apt to be alert in seizing on fresh words, and "starvation" has shared in the general neglect.
If you permit me I will, however, afford them my humble aid, by transcribing some omitted words which I find noted in a little Walker's Dictionary, printed in 1830, and which has been my companion in many pilgrimages through many distant lands. Many of them may by this time have found their way even into dictionaries, but I copy them as I find them.
Fiat.
Lichen.
Dawdle.
Compete (verb).
Starvation.
Cupel (see test).
Stationery (writing materials).
Chubby.
Mister (form of address).
Iodine.
Disorganise.
Growl (substantive).
Avadavat (School for Scandal).
Apograph.
Flange.
Effete.
Jungle.
Celt (formed of touchstone).
Minivar.
Unhesitating.
Remittent.
Tannin.
Curry (substantive).
Uncompromised.
Duchess.
Resile (verb).
Gist.
Nascent.
Dictum.
Retinence.
Phonetic.
Lacunæ.
Extradition.
Laches.
Fulcrum.
Statics.
Æsthetical.
Complicity.
N.L. Melville.
However "strange it may appear, it is nevertheless quite true," that this word, "Starvation
(from the verb), state of perishing from cold or hunger," is to be found, and thus defined, in "An Appendix to Dr. Johnson's English Dictionary," published along with the latter, by William Maver, in 2 vols. 8vo., Glasgow, 1809, now forty-five years ago. In his preface to this Appendix he says:
"In the compilation the editor is principally indebted to Mr. Mason, whose labours in supplying the deficiencies of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary have so much enriched the vocabulary of our language, that every purchaser of the quarto edition should avail himself of a copy of Mr. Mason's Supplement."
Whether or not Mr. Maver drew the word "starvation" from Mr. Mason's Supplement, I cannot say; but from old date in the west of Scotland it has been, and is still, popularly and extensively used in the exact senses given to it by Mr. Maver as above. I think it much more likely to be of Scottish than of American origin, and that Mr. Webster may have picked it up from some of our natives in this country.
I may add, that in early life I often spoke with Mr. Maver, who was a most intelligent literary man. In 1809 he followed the business of a bookseller in Glasgow, but from some cause was not fortunate, and afterwards followed that of a book auctioneer, and may be dead fully thirty years ago. His edition of, and Appendix to, Johnson were justly esteemed; the latter "containing several thousand words omitted by Dr. Johnson, and such as have been introduced by good writers since his time," with "the pronunciation according to the present practice of the best orators and orthoepists" of the whole language.
G. N.
This word was first introduced into the English language by Mr. Dundas, in a debate in the House of Commons on American affairs, in 1775. From it he obtained the nick-name of "Starvation Dundas." (Vide the Correspondence between Horace Walpole and Mason, vol. ii. pp. 177. 310. 396., edition 1851.) The word is of irregular formation, the root starve being Old English, while the termination -ation is Latin.
E. G. R.
The word may perhaps be originally American; but if the following anecdote be correct, it was introduced into this country long before Webster compiled his Dictionary:
"The word starvation was first introduced into the English language by Mr. Dundas, in a speech in 1775 on an American debate, and hence applied to him as a nickname, 'Starvation Dundas.' 'I shall not,' said he, 'wait for the advent of starvation from Edinburgh to settle my judgment.'"—Letters of Horace Walpole and Mason, vol. ii. p. 396.
J. R. M., M.A.
Throughout this part of the country, "starved" always refers to cold, never to hunger. To express the latter the word "hungered" is always used: thus, many were "like to have been hungered" in the late severe weather and hard times. This is clearly the scriptural phrase "an hungred." To "starve" is to perish; and it is a common expression in the south, "I am quite perished with cold;" which answers to our northern one, "I am quite starved."
H. T. G.
Hull.
I cannot ascertain the period of the adoption of the unhappily common word "starvation" in our language, but it is much older than your correspondent Q. supposes. It occurs in the Rolliad:
"'Tis but to fire another Sykes, to plan
Some new starvation scheme for Hindostan."
M.