famine (famin)

[ It. fame = OSp. fame, Sp. hambre = Pg. fome = Pr. fam = OF.faim, F.faim ), hunger. Cf. Gr. χῆρος, bereft, empty, χήρα, a widow, Skt. hāni, privation, want, Ofte tymes the i a ailed the Citee, that was right stronge, that nothynge ne dowted, saf only for famyn. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 224. And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine ; that the land perish not through the famine . Gen. xli. 36. I could not forget my native country, England, and lamented under the famine of God's Word and Sacraments: the want whereof I found greater than all earthly wants. R. Knox (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 400). Cotton famine. See cotton 1. - Famine fever, relapsing fever.-Famine prices, the high prices resulting from scarcity of a commodity. Tin-plates, in common with tin, ruled at what were termed famine prices in 1872. Contemporary Rev. , LII. 542. =Syn. Dearth , etc. See scarcity. famine-bread (fam'in-bred), n. The Umbili caria arctic a , a species of lichen. The so-called famine bread (Umbilicaria arctic a), which has maintained the life of so many arctic travellers. Encyc . Brit ., XXII. 409.