Extremely hungry; desperately wanting food.
From Old French 'famis' (hungry), which comes from Latin 'famis' (hunger). The suffix '-ed' was added in Middle English to turn the adjective into a past participle, literally meaning 'made hungry.' The word suggests a state caused by extreme deprivation.
Interestingly, 'famished' is always extreme—you can't be 'a little famished.' It's one of those 'absolute' adjectives in English that resists modifiers. This reveals something about medieval English: they used exaggerated language to describe extreme physical states because everyday hardship made mild hunger simply unbearable.
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