Forpine

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic verb meaning to waste away gradually through grief, hunger, or intense suffering
2. To languish and decline in body or spirit from long hardship, sorrow, or unfulfilled desire
3. To become weak and emaciated from pain, sorrow, or a long-held longing for something lost

Etymology: "Forpine" is a verb built from the intensive prefix "for-" and "pine," the familiar word for suffering or wasting away. The "for-" prefix once had a strong sense of "thoroughly" or "completely," as in "forwear" and "forlorn," so "forpine" meant to waste away utterly through suffering, to torment or consume someone with pain or hunger. The word came into English from Middle English "forpinen," and it has a close relative in Middle Low German "vorpinen," which shows the same construction was shared across the North Sea region. Both forms carried the idea of wearing a person down completely through torment, a sense that the simple "pine" already contained but that the prefix pushed to its extreme.

Synonyms: languish, pine away, waste away