pri·va·tion

[prahy-vey-shuhn]
noun
1.
lack of the usual comforts or necessaries of life: His life of privation began to affect his health.
2.
an instance of this.
3.
the act of depriving.
4.
the state of being deprived.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English (< Middle French privacion) < Latin prīvātiōn- (stem of prīvātiō) a taking away. See private, -ion


1. deprivation, want, need, distress. See hardship.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To privation
00:10
Privation is always a great word to know.
So is ort. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
Collins
World English Dictionary
privation (praɪˈveɪʃən) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  loss or lack of the necessities of life, such as food and shelter
2.  hardship resulting from this
3.  the state of being deprived
4.  obsolete logic the absence from an object of what ordinarily or naturally belongs to such objects
 
[C14: from Latin prīvātiō deprivation]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

privation
mid-14c., "action of depriving," from O.Fr. privacion, from L. privationem (nom. privatio) "a taking away," from privatus, pp. of privare "deprive" (see private). Meaning "want of life's comforts or of some necessity" is attested from 1790.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Example sentences
Four years is not a long enough time in which to forget the misery and
  privation which that strike brought about.
The world of the shtetl was one of privation and miseries endured.
They are all, of course, subjected to more of less privation.
There she lived for a time a life of the utmost privation.
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT