hunger
See also: Hunger
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈhʌŋɡə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈhʌŋɡɚ/
Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -ʌŋɡə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: hun‧ger
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English hunger, from Old English hungor (“hunger, desire; famine”), from Proto-Germanic *hungruz, *hunhruz (“hunger”), from Proto-Indo-European *kenk- (“to burn, smart, desire, hunger, thirst”). Cognate with West Frisian honger, hûnger (“hunger”), Dutch honger (“hunger”), German Low German Hunger (“hunger”), German Hunger (“hunger”), Swedish hunger (“hunger”), Icelandic hungur (“hunger”).
NounEdit
hunger (countable and uncountable, plural hungers)
- A need or compelling desire for food.
- (by extension) Any strong desire.
- I have a hunger to win.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book V, canto XII, stanza 1:
- O sacred hunger of ambitious minds!
- 2003, Curtis Jackson and Rob Tewlow (lyrics), Reef Tewlow (music), “What Up Gangsta”, in Get Rich or Die Tryin', New York City: Shady Records, performed by 50 Cent:
- When gangsters bump my shit, can they feel my hunger?
Usage notesEdit
The phrase be hungry is more common than have hunger to express a need for food.
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
need for food
|
|
strong desire
See alsoEdit
Etymology 2Edit
From Old English hyngran, from Proto-Germanic *hungrijaną.
VerbEdit
hunger (third-person singular simple present hungers, present participle hungering, simple past and past participle hungered)
- (intransitive) To be in need of food.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Romans 12:20:
- Therefore if thine enemie hunger, feed him: if he thirst, giue him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heape coales of fire on his head.
- (figuratively, intransitive, usually with 'for' or 'after') To have a desire (for); to long; to yearn.
- I hungered for your love.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Matthew 5:6:
- Blessed are they which doe hunger and thirst after righteousnesse: for they shall be filled.
- 1993, The The, Love Is Stronger Than Death
- In our lives we hunger for those we cannot touch.
- (archaic, transitive) To make hungry; to famish.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
need food
|
|
desire
ReferencesEdit
- hunger in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
AnagramsEdit
DanishEdit
NounEdit
hunger
- (uncommon) hunger
DeclensionEdit
Declension of hunger
| common gender |
Singular | |
|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | |
| nominative | hunger | hungeren |
| genitive | hungers | hungerens |
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
GermanEdit
VerbEdit
hunger
- inflection of hungern:
Middle EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- (Early ME) hunngerr, hungor, hungær
- hunguer, honguer, honger, hungre, hongre, hungere, hongur, hounger, hounguer, hungir, hungyr, hungur
EtymologyEdit
From Old English hungor, from Proto-West Germanic *hungr, from Proto-Germanic *hungruz.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
hunger (uncountable)
- Hungriness; the feeling of being hungry or requiring satiation.
- Hunger; a great lack or death of food or nutrition.
- p. 1154, “AD 1137”, in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS. Laud Misc. 636, continuation), Peterborough, folio 89, verso; republished at Oxford: Digital Bodleian, 8 February 2018:
- Mani þusen hi drapen mid hungær.
- Many thousands they overcame with hunger.
- A shortage of food in a region or country; widespread hunger.
- a. 1382, John Wycliffe, “2 Paralipomenon 6:28”, in Wycliffe's Bible:
- If hungur riſiþ in þe lond and peſtilence and ruſt and wynd diſtriynge cornes and a locuste and bꝛuke comeþ and if enemyes biſegen þe ȝatis of þe citee aftir þat þe cuntreis ben diſtried and al veniaunce and ſikenesse oppꝛeſſiþ […]
- If hunger rises in the land, and pestilence, rust, wind, destroying grain, and locusts and their young come, and if enemies besiege a city's gates after the city's surrounds are ruined, and when any destruction and disease oppresses (people) […]
- Hunger as a metaphorical individual; the force of hunger.
- (rare) Any strong drive or compulsion.
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “hunger, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-19.
Norwegian BokmålEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Norse hungr, from Proto-Germanic *hunhruz.
NounEdit
hunger m (definite singular hungeren, uncountable)
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “hunger” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian NynorskEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
hunger m (definite singular hungeren) (uncountable)
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “hunger” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
SwedishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Norse hungr, from Proto-Germanic *hunhruz.
PronunciationEdit
audio (file)
NounEdit
hunger c (uncountable)
DeclensionEdit
| Declension of hunger | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uncountable | ||||
| Indefinite | Definite | |||
| Nominative | hunger | hungern | — | — |
| Genitive | hungers | hungerns | — | — |