pine

name

1. A surname

noun

Etymology: From Middle English pyne, pine, probably from Old English *pīne (“pain”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīnā (“pain, torment, torture”), possibly from Latin poena (“punishment”), from Ancient Greek ποινή (poinḗ, “penalty, fine, bloodmoney”). Cognate to pain. Entered Germanic with Christianity; cognate to Middle Dutch pinen, Old High German pīnōn, Old Norse pína.

1. A painful longing.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English pynen, from Old English pīnian (“to torment”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīnōn, from Proto-West Germanic *pīnā (“pain, torment, torture”), from the noun (see above). Cognate with German peinigen (“to torment, torture”), Icelandic pína (“to torment”).

1. To languish; to lose flesh or wear away through distress.

   “Why pine not I, and die in this distress?”

   “[T]hou mayſt know / What miſerie th' inabſtinence of Eve / Shall bring on men. Immediately a place / Before his eyes appeard, ſad, noyſom, dark, / A Lazar-houſe it ſeemd, wherein were laid / Numbers all diſeas'd, […] / […] / Dæmoniac Phrenzie, moaping Melancholie / And Moon-ſtruck madneſs, pining Atrophie, / Maraſmus and wide-waſting Peſtilence.”

2. To long, to yearn so much that it causes suffering.

   “Laura was pining for Bill all the time he was gone.”

   “Praline: "That parrot is definitely deceased. And when I bought it not half an hour ago you assured me that its lack of movement was due to it being tired and shagged out after a long squawk." Shopkeeper: "It's probably pining for the fiords." Praline: "Pining for the fiords, what kind of talk is that?"”

3. To grieve or mourn for.
4. To inflict pain upon; to torment.

   “Which way, O Lord, which way can I look, and not see some sad examples of misery? […] [O]ne is pined in prison; another, tortured on the rack; a third, languisheth under the loss of a dear son, or wife, or husband.”