Stirveling

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A thin, underfed, and weakly person or creature, especially one that looks half-starved and sickly
2. Someone or something that is emaciated and frail from lack of food, a term used chiefly in Scots dialect
3. A pitifully thin and feeble being, one reduced to skin and bone by hunger and poor nourishment

Etymology: Before "starve" meant hunger, it meant to die by any means. The Old English verb "steorfan" (related to German "sterben") covered death in general, and the sense narrowed to dying of want only in the later Middle Ages. "Stirveling" belongs to the Scots and northern English branch that kept the older vowel in the form "stirve," and it is built from that verb plus the suffix "-ling," used for a person characterized by a quality, as in "weakling." The English standard form is "starveling," which Shakespeare used in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," where Robin Starveling, the thin tailor, plays Moonshine in the mechanicals' play. The name is a joke on his appearance, since a starveling was a thin, underfed creature.

Synonyms: starveling, weakling, runt