Steorfan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An Old English verb meaning to die, to lose one's life or cease to live
2. Old English term for dying or perishing, the process of losing life
3. A verb from Old English that describes a living thing coming to its end and perishing

Etymology: In Old English, "steorfan" meant simply "to die," whatever the cause. A warrior cut down in battle, a person taken by plague, and a person who wasted away from hunger could all be said to steorfan. It is a close relative of German "sterben" and Dutch "sterven," which still mean "to die," and all three descend from a Proto-Germanic form, "*sterbaną." In English, the meaning narrowed. During the Middle English period, "starve" came to refer mainly to death by lack of food, while the general sense of dying passed to "die," a word borrowed from Old Norse "deyja" that gradually replaced it in most uses.