starve

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*sterbʰ-“to become stiff”
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)terp-“to lose strength, become numb, be motionless”
3. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*sterbaną“to become stiff, die”
4. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*sterban
5. Old English · inherited fromsteorfan“to die, perish”
6. Middle English · inherited fromsterven“to die, perish”
7. English todaystarve

From Middle English sterven (“to die, perish”), from Old English steorfan (“to die, perish”), from Proto-West Germanic *sterban, from Proto-Germanic *sterbaną (“to become stiff, die”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terp- (“to lose strength, become numb, be motionless”); or from Proto-Indo-European *sterbʰ- (“to become stiff”), from *ster- (“stiff”); or a conflation of the aforementioned. Cognate with Scots stairve, sterve (“to die, perish, starve”), Saterland Frisian stjerwa (“to die”), West Frisian stjerre (“to die”), Dutch sterven (“to die”), German Low German starven (“to die”), German sterben (“to die”), Icelandic stirfinn (“peevish, froward”), Albanian shterp (“sterile, unproductive, barren land”).

Words from the same roots