subs. (old: now recognised).—See quots. [Latham’s edition (1866) of Todd’s Johnson was the first English Dictionary to include this word.]
1775. DUNDAS, Speech on American Affairs. I shall not wait for the advent of STARVATION from Edinburgh to settle my judgment.
1781. WALPOLE, Letters, ‘To Rev. W. Mason,’ 25 April. STARVATION Dundas, whose pious policy suggested that the devil of rebellion could be expelled only by fasting.
1851. MITFORD, Correspondence of Walpole [CUNNINGHAM, viii. 30. Note]. STARVATION was an epithet applied to Mr. Dundas, the word being, for the first time, introduced into our language by him, in a speech in 1775 in an American debate, and thenceforward became a nickname.
1899. Century Dictionary, s.v. STRAVATION. The word is noted as one of the first (flirtation being another) to be formed directly from a native English verb with the Latin termination—ation … first used or brought into notice by Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville.
