Exsiccated/Exsiccation - was trying to think of a single English term that could be the equivalent of starvation; like if someone was dying of thirst, but I felt parched isn’t weighted enough to fulfill the gravity of it.
In latin exsiccare meant to dry up completely, so that’s how we got here I guess.
Thoughts? Is there a term I have forgotten that fits what I was looking for?
Dehydration.
Dehydration?
I was thinking if someone drank the night before I would define them as dehydrated, not dying of thirst.
If someone hasn’t drank in two days they are dehydrated.
This brings home what thirst truly is.
I feel like the hungry -> starving process is just a longer version of the thirsty -> dehydrated process
Does it make a difference that starvation takes longer than dehydration, but both result in eventual death? It takes weeks to die of starvation, it takes days to die of dehydration. Just because one manifests over a longer period of time and has a longer recovery period doesn’t make the other less deadly
Also, I’m not sure if there are poisons a person can ingest that will strip vital nutrients and push a person into the starvation state (and if the poison does strip vital nutrients, the poisoned person already has bigger problems). But consuming alcohol will push a person into the dehydrated state without killing them.
What if you compared the effects of dehydration and starvation as they progress, like, mild -> acute -> severe -> terminal?
- Mild dehydration (day 1) kidneys conserve water, headache, fatigue
- Mild starvation (week 1) blood sugar drops, liver increases glycogen breakdown, irritability, difficult to concentrate.
Something like that?
This post was brought to you by ADHD, and quite possibly Autism
Thirstmaxxing.
I physically recoiled
Dehydration
You don’t necessarily die from starvation the same way you don’t necessarily die from dehydration, but you can die from either of them.parched? dessication?
Unslaked?
Dessication. It’s a bit hyperbolic but it works.
I like desiccation, it has such a lovely mouth-feel. I was reading an Patrick Obrien book recently, and I think someone was in danger of desiccation.
Strictly theres ‘dehydration’, though it does lack gravitas of ‘starving’. ‘Parched’ also exists but I feel like that falls in with ‘thirsty’ as a “Yea I want water but I’m not dying” situation.
‘Dessicated’ or ‘dessication’ could be used descriptively as it means dried out.
If you saw someone who staved to death, you may say their remains were emaciated; they died of starvation.
If you saw someone who died from lack of water, you may say their remains are desiccated; they died of dehydration.
I dont think that’s true in either case.
You can be emaciated without dying, and you can starve to death without being emaciated. They might be somewhat related but not always occurring together.
The same is true of dehydration and dessicated.
‘I feel dessicated’ and ‘I feel dehydrated’ both flow fairly well to me, though I’d feel more bougie saying the former unless I was analogizing in the same sentence
Let’s invent some!
Mortidipsia - “thirst unto death”
Xerothan - “dry death” note: than(atos)
Siccomort - “death by drying out”
The old English word for this was forthirst. It was a direct counterpart to the modern “starve.” But it fell out of use because it happened so rarely in the British isles. I don’t know Arabic but I’m willing to bet they have a word for it…
Ah, like german verdursten!
I always find it cool when you can discover equivalent words in other languages like this.
I think that’s where English got it from actually.
Lemme hit that gatorade, I’m forthirsting here!
He forthirsted to death.
Forsooth!
I’d love to see that one come back.
Desiccated maybe?
I might be a little late to the thread but how about “parched”?
Thirstfallen
Dibs band name.
Drinkwant
He has died from want of drink. Drinkwant
Thirstydeath
Waterfall
Powerthirst
Megathirst
Thirstmining.
The scientific term is Turbo Parched
Is parched itself not strong enough to fit the bill? Nonnative speaker here.
No, parched is a light to moderate thirst.
I just never miss never miss an opportunity to slap turbo onto something, as a rule.
I think “desiccated” would be the closest existing English word to what you’re trying to cook up.
I’m not a native English speaker so keep that in mind, but desiccated sounds like “already dead because of dehydration” to me.
I think that’s right. I would read it as hyperbole to refer to something still alive as desiccated, for sure. If you meant it literally, I wouldn’t think of something that is even just dead but like, dried up and leathery, too – if you’re talking about a desiccated cow, I’m thinking more “beef jerky” and less “someone get the vet, and hurry.” There are more natural options elsewhere in the comments; I offered mine more as “this is the more well-known word using that root” than “this is the most natural word a native speaker would produce.”
I understand and I didn’t write that because I’m arguing. I was just stating how it sounds for me. When I see the word desiccated I imagine something like someone died in an arid place and stayed there for some time. Though it’s not a word that I encounter a lot.
That’s because desiccated is past tense. The other forms would be dessicate, dessicates, and desiccating. The “I’m starving to death” would be “I’m desiccating to death”
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying it! I guess I only saw that word in its past tense in real life.
Desiccated like a coconut
I’m dying of thirsting. *bites lip
