Privation

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /pɹɪˈveɪʃən/

Definitions

1. the condition of being without basic necessities or desired possessions, or the act of depriving someone of something they need or deserve
2. a state or process involving the absence of essential things like food or shelter, or the withholding of something rightfully belonging to a person
3. The state of not having essential things needed for survival or comfort ; the act of denying someone what they normally have or require

Etymology: "Privation" comes from Latin "prīvātiō," a noun built from "prīvāre," meaning "to deprive" or "to bereave," and it has a striking origin for a word now mostly tied to hardship. The Latin root sits behind the English adjective "private," and the link shows the core idea: to be private is to be set apart from what others hold, and to be deprived is to have something taken away from you. The word passed into Middle English as "privacioun," and it reached English through Middle French and Old French, where it carried the same sense of loss or lack. Over the centuries the word has kept its two main threads. One is the sense of lacking something essential, such as food, warmth, or a roof overhead. The other is the older legal sense of being wrongfully denied what is rightfully yours. Both grow directly from "prīvāre," so the word describes the act of having something removed as much as the condition that follows.

Synonyms: deprivation, lack, absence, deficiency, want

Antonyms: abundance, plenty, surplus, luxury, wealth