Etymologically
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hunger

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈhʌŋɡə/ (UK); /ˈhʌŋɡɚ/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English hungor (“pain from lack of food; famine”),[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *hungraz,[2][3] cognate with Dutch honger, German Hunger, Old Norse hungr and Gothic hūhrus.[2][3][5] Watkins derives it probably from PIE *kenk-, to suffer hunger or thirst,[2] and Barnhart compares Lithuanian kenkti, to pain, and Greek kénkei, he is hungry;[3][4] Hoad finds further relations doubtful.[5] The verb is Old English hyngran, which became hunger instead of the expected *hinger by influence of the noun.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The pain or craving caused by want of food: about 825 in the OED, about 725 in Genesis A in Barnhart.[6][3]

Semantic evolution

Famine, a scarcity of food in a country, is from about 1000 and is now obsolete or archaic.[6] Trench notes that hunger and famine were long synonymous, quoting Wycliffe's a strong hungre was maad in that cuntre (Luke 15:14), and that in Ireland the great famine year was still called the year of the hunger.[7] Famine came to mean the outward fact and hunger the inward experience.[7] A strong desire, at first spiritual, is from about 1200 in Etymonline and 1548 in the OED.[2][6] The verb was used impersonally, it hungers me, from 950.[6][2] Hunger strike is from 1885, of prisoners in Russia.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 825 – hunger for food.[6]
  • 950 – it hungers me.[6]
  • c. 1000 – famine (archaic).[6]
  • c. 1200 – a strong desire.[2]
  • 1885 – hunger strike.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A strong need or desire for food, or the pain and weakness caused by lack of it.
  2. A strong desire or craving: hunger for power.

Verb

  1. To feel hunger.
  2. To have a strong desire: to hunger for knowledge.

Word family

  • hungeringly
  • hungerly
  • hungry
  • ahungered
  • air hunger
  • hunger strike
  • famine
  • starve

Usage notes

In Shetland a hunger was also a kettle for broiling.[8]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)