Clem

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /klɛm/

Definitions

1. To become destitute, particularly in the sense of lacking food or money; to experience extreme hunger or poverty; to live in a state of severe deprivation
2. To find oneself impoverished and without basic necessities; to suffer from starvation or economic hardship; to endure significant scarcity or need
3. To be reduced to a state of want or hunger due to lack of resources; to face hardship from insufficient provisions; to exist in a condition marked by scarcity or financial distress

Etymology: The verb "clem" meaning to suffer extreme hunger is a word whose modern sense has almost nothing to do with its origins. Its earliest form in English meant simply to squeeze or press, as in Old English "clemman," which carried the idea of pressing something tight or surrounding it. Its ancestor was the Proto-West Germanic "*klammjan," meaning to squeeze, and the same root survives in modern German "klemmen," meaning to jam or clamp, and Dutch "klemmen," to pinch or stick. The hunger sense grew from the image of a body being squeezed by want. Middle English speakers used "clemmen" for pinching and starving, so a person who was clemmed was pressed by need until they were weak. The idea of a stomach being gripped or clamped shut by emptiness is a short step from the older sense of compression. A second Old English word, "clām," meaning paste, mortar or clay, sits in the background, and some dictionaries link the two. That connection is uncertain, so the squeezing root is the safer thread to follow.

Synonyms: starve, fast, go hungry

Antonyms: feast, eat