The word may perhaps be originally American; but if the following anecdote
be correct, it was introduced into this country long before Webster
compiled his _Dictionary_:
"The word _starvation_ was first introduced into the English language
by Mr. Dundas, in a speech in 1775 on an American debate, and hence
applied to him as a nickname, 'Starvation Dundas.' 'I shall not,' said
he, 'wait for the advent of starvation from Edinburgh to settle my
judgment.'"--_Letters of Horace Walpole and Mason_, vol. ii. p. 396.