Other forms: perished, perishing, perishes
To perish is to die, and the word brings a scale with it, because it belongs to fires, shipwrecks, avalanches and famine. Ninety people perished when the ferry went down. You read it in headlines and in old books far more than you hear it at a kitchen table.
That is the warning: keep perish away from ordinary death. Your grandfather died last spring, he did not perish. The second sense is domestic and very British, since rubber and similar materials perish, meaning they harden, crack and crumble away. A perished hosepipe, perished window seals, a rubber band that snaps the moment you stretch it. Food that goes bad quickly is perishable, which is why a lorry of strawberries carries a load of perishables. And perish the thought is a set phrase for waving away an idea you find horrible.
1verbperishTo die, especially in an accident, a disaster or a war.
“Two hundred passengers perished on the crossing.”
formal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement
2verbrubberOf rubber or a similar material: to rot, harden and lose its strength.
“The seals had perished and the window let the rain straight in.”
3verbdestroyedTo be destroyed or to come to an end.
“Whole libraries perished in the fire.”
formal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement
Perish came through Old French perir from Latin pereō, to pass away, which is per, meaning through, plus eō, to go. Its Proto-Indo-European root *h₁ey- means simply to go, and it also sits under exit, transit and initial. To perish is to go all the way through and out the far side.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁ey-
Latin
pereo — pass away, perish
Old French
perir
Middle English
perishen
English, today
perish
Built from
From Middle English perishen, borrowed from Old French perir (via the stem periss- used in various conjugations), from Latin pereo (“pass away, perish”), from per (“through”) + eō (“pass, go”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA