forwelk means to wither; decay; fade. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “forwelk” is a great word
FORWELK — [Verb] To cause to wither, decay, or fade with a sense of thorough and irrevocable loss. From Middle English forwelken, formed from the intensive prefix for- and the verb welken (to wither or fade). Unlike "wither," which suggests a general drying, or "fade," which implies a gradual, often gentle, loss of color, to forwelk is to enact a profound and consumptive devastation. It is the sun’s pitiless baking of a cut flower until it crumbles to dust; the secret damp that rots a book’s pages into a single blackened pulp; the settled melancholy that empties a life of its very capacity for joy. It names the quiet consummation of a thing’s unmaking.
Etymology
From Middle English forwelken, equivalent to for- + welk. Compare Dutch verwelken (“to wither, wilt”), German verwelken (“to fade, wilt, shrivel away”). More at for-, welk.
verb
- To wither; decay; fade.