To cause famine; to deprive of food or sustenance; to starve.
From the prefix 'be-' (Old English, indicating causation) combined with 'famine' (from Old French 'famine,' from Latin 'fames,' meaning hunger). The prefix transforms the noun into a causative verb.
Befamine shows how the 'be-' prefix once made it easy to create new verbs—rather than saying 'to cause famine,' you could just add 'be-' to 'famine' and everyone understood the meaning, but this word has vanished from English entirely.
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