# Food is to starve as water is to \_\_\_\_\_\_ ??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 12, 2013, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047 "2013-08-12T17:13:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![schwartzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@schwartzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schwartzo)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/21 "2015-12-08T02:11:42Z")
food is to starve as water is to wither (away). ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/22 "2015-12-08T02:20:06Z")
I remember learning years ago that the verb _to starve_ originally just meant “to die”. An online dictionary search confirms this. Also, it seems that in some dialects, it can mean “to die of cold”. ---
**Author:** ![Itself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/23 "2015-12-08T05:35:58Z")
It’s ‘_desiccate_’, not ‘dessicate’. It’s from Latin ‘de’ + ‘siccare’ (to dry). ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/24 "2015-12-08T05:37:54Z")
“Hunger” is to “thirst” (both verbs.) ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/25 "2015-12-08T07:48:31Z")
“I’m starving” means you have a great hunger “I’m parched” means you have a great thirst. “I’m hungry” means you are merely hungry “I’m thirsty” means you are merely thirsty “he died of starvation” is a an accurate medical description, as is “he died of dehydration” ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/26 "2015-12-08T07:50:31Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#): > > I remember learning years ago that the verb _to starve_ originally just meant “to die”. > > An online dictionary search confirms this. Also, it seems that in some dialects, it can mean “to die of cold”. very true, my old dear departed nana from Maryport in Cumbria would often claim, when cold “eeeeee! it’s starvation in here” ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/27 "2015-12-08T18:02:52Z")
It’s just one of those things, language x has it in one word and language y has to spell it out, as it were. Sad, in some way. But has prompted reams of philosophy and good fiction by Borges, notably, on the idea of matching the infinite gradations of temporal reality (each defined by every individual) with a distinguishable referent. About “starvation” in its sense of mortal harm to the body, as opposed to deprivation of food/something, the image of language shift by advertising mentioned upthread ("help the starving children of Africa) is far more pronounced over the last few years in particular (“starvation” is pretty generally understood as extreme, doleful hunger) in the word “dehydrate” (and its partner “dehydration”: People used to be thirsty and need/want something to drink. But impressing upon them that, no, they are dehydrated–“impressive” because, as noted above by many–it is multi-syllabic and used previously only in context of science, including areas of sports science far removed from the mass of people who do athletics of any kind, as well, of course, since everybody gets thirsty, not only people doing sports, the sales market for “hydration” beverages is gigantic. I remember when someone first said to me “I feel/I am dehydrated” before he stopped in a store for a drink, and how bizaare (and pretentious) it sounded. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/28 "2015-12-08T19:55:47Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > It’s just one of those things, language x has it in one word and language y has to spell it out, as it were. Sad, in some way. At least it’s not “rain the color of blue with a little red in it.” ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/29 "2015-12-08T23:18:56Z")
> [@troub](#): > > At least it’s not “rain the color of blue with a little red in it.” 😕 Sounds interesting. Reference? ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/30 "2015-12-09T23:04:03Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > 😕 Sounds interesting. Reference? “‘Purple Rain’ — As Retold In A Language Without A Word For Purple” > **['Purple Rain' — As Retold In A Language Without A Word For Purple](https://www.npr.org/2015/11/28/457689856/purple-rain-as-retold-in-a-language-without-a-word-for-purple)** > > Prince's '80s-era classic has gotten a modern update — in Niger. Directed by Christopher Kirkley, starring the nomadic Tuareg people, this Purple Rain remake drops the kissing but keeps the attitude. > [@](#): > > It’s called Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai — which translates to “Rain the Color of Blue with a Little Red in It.” That’s because there’s no word for “purple” in Tamajeq, the language spoken by the Tuareg. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/31 "2015-12-09T23:23:50Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > “I’m starving” means you have a great hunger > “I’m parched” means you have a great thirst. > > “I’m hungry” means you are merely hungry > “I’m thirsty” means you are merely thirsty > > “he died of starvation” is a an accurate medical description, as is > “he died of dehydration” I don’t know if parched fits this as well as you lay it out here. “I’m starving” is often used colloquially to mean the same as “I’m hungry.” However, to actually be starved to death is not the same as to be parched to death. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/32 "2015-12-09T23:31:34Z")
Also note that to starve in English initially meant to die, with no connotation of cause of death, as in this quote from Chaucer. c1374 Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde v. 1844 [Christ] Vpon a cros oure soules for to beye First starf, and ros, and sit yn heuene a-boue. By Elizabethan times it had gained the modern sense of death from hunger, although you can still find examples of the earlier sense in Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/33 "2015-12-10T05:36:35Z")
In Dutch (as in German, give or take an o/u switch and a dropped e), to starve is “verhongeren”, to die for lack of liquid is “verdorsten”. They relate exactly like what the op is looking for: food/verhongeren = water/verdorsten. Neither dehydrate or parch relate to starve in that exact way. Interesting that English lost that term (forthyrsten) - I guess there wasn’t enough need for it. Although hard to imagine why the word was necessary in Dutch, as there is beer everywhere in Holland. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/34 "2015-12-10T05:45:33Z")
> [@olpeculiar](#): > > Yeah, I guess dehydration is the best answer. I can’t explain it, but it doesn’t seem to have the same “feel” that “starvation” does - “dehydration” almost sounds too clinical. “Starvation” seems to arouse emotion in a way that “dehydration” does not. But maybe that’s just too much exposure to those “sponsor a starving child in Africa” commercials. > > I can’t argue, though - “dehydration” probably is the best parallel to “starvation.” Thanks all… The second time I was in the hospital this year, I was EXTREMELY dehydrated, in severe pain, and close to death. Believe me, that word arouses a lot of emotion in me. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-is-to-starve-as-water-is-to-______/666047/35 "2015-12-10T15:20:35Z")
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