SYLLABICATION: fam·ine
PRONUNCIATION:   fmn
NOUN: 1. A drastic, wide-reaching food shortage. 2. A drastic shortage; a dearth. 3. Severe hunger; starvation. 4. Archaic Extreme appetite.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old French, from faim, hunger, from Vulgar Latin *famna, from Latin fams.


If the blight had not decimated the potato crop, would the deaths from starvation occurred? Were people starving from politically-denied foods prior to the beginning of the blight? It seems clear that there was mass starvation caused by crop failure and a lack of political compassion, will, or muscle to rectify it.

A