hambre

Forms

hambre f (plural hambres)^[1] Old Spanish wrote famne (Glosas Silenses, Liber Regum, Berceo), fanbre (Cantar de mio Cid) and fambre;^[1] fame is also recorded in old Castilian.^[2][3][4][1] Salamanca has jambre, with an aspirated initial;^[1] Judeo-Spanish has ambre.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish fambre, earlier famne, inherited from Vulgar Latin *famen (“hunger”), a Vulgar Latin form of Latin famēs (“hunger”).^[5][1][2][6] The DCECH starts from the Vulgar Latin nominative famis, found from the 4th century, which took an accusative *faminem on the model of sanguis; a neuter nominative like nōmen and lūmen, is the other possibility.^[2] Wiktionary likewise starts from the accusative of either nominative.^[1]

Only a few Romance languages share the form with -n-: Gascon hame, Sardinian fámine (attested already in the Condaghe de Trullas of the 12th–13th century) and, according to the DCECH, Portuguese fome.^[2][7] Most Romance languages continue the classical form, as do Catalan fam, French faim, Italian fame and Romanian foame.^[2][7][1] Galician fame and Asturian fame may continue either form.^[4] The Portuguese ⟨o⟩ is anomalous; the DCECH finds only Meyer-Lübke's explanation tenable, a colloquial Latin variant *fomes, perhaps jocular at first, by association with fōmes (“kindling; stimulus”).^[2] The same Latin word is the source, through French, of English famine.^[1]

De Vaan notes that the Latin noun was moving from the fifth to the third declension.^[8] Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny connect it with fatīgō (“to tire”) through a root *dʰH- (“to disappear”), but de Vaan finds the comparison too vague in form and meaning and leaves the origin open.^[8][1] The DHLF notes that the word has no counterpart outside Latin.^[9]

Latin /mVn/ became Old Spanish /mn/, then /mɾ/ and /mbɾ/, as in hombre, nombre, lumbre and cumbre.^[1][10] The Old Spanish ⟨f⟩ was later written ⟨h⟩; the form with ⟨h⟩ is recorded from 1259.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Silenses of the late 10th century have famne.^[2][6] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the besieged townspeople suffer it: fijos e mugieres verlos murir de fanbre “to see their children and wives die of hunger”.^[3] The Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211) already uses it for a famine: vii de fartura & vii de famne “seven [years] of plenty and seven of famine”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose the word has both its senses, hunger and a general scarcity of food.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 adds a figurative sense, excessive greed or longing for something, and records matar la hambre “to satisfy one's hunger”, tomar a uno por hambre “to starve someone into surrender” and the proverb a mucha hambre no ay pan malo “to great hunger no bread is bad”.^[14] Autoridades has the three senses of hunger, scarcity and strong desire, quoting los que han hambre y sed de la Justicia from Ripalda's catechism.^[15] The Academy's 1817 edition lists hambre canina, both a disease of insatiable appetite and a vehement desire, and proverbs such as hambre que espera hartura no es hambre.^[16] In 1884 it added hambre calagurritana, after the siege of Calagurris (Calahorra), for a very violent hunger.^[17]

Autoridades noted that the word often takes the masculine article to avoid a cacophony (el hambre).^[15] In the Americas this led to masculine agreement: mucho hambre is reported from Chile, Argentina and Ecuador, and New Mexican Spanish treats the word as masculine.^{[18][19][20][21]} In Bolivia and Paraguay hambre is also used of a person greedy for material goods.^[22] The first record from the Americas is from Tierra Firme in 1515.^[23]

Timeline

• late 10th century – the Glosas Silenses gloss with the form famne.^[2][6]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has fanbre.^[2][3]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum uses famne for a famine.^[3]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has fambre.^[3]
• 1259 – the form with ⟨h⟩, hambre, appears in Alfonso X's Libro de las cruzes.^[11][13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin fames and inedia.^[24]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[23]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the figurative sense and several proverbs.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary lists hambre canina.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy adds hambre calagurritana.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. hunger: the need and desire to eat: Después del partido teníamos mucha hambre.^[5][1]
2. famine: a scarcity of basic foods that causes general want and misery.^[5][11]
3. A strong desire for something, often not material: hambre de justicia.^[5][25]
4. hambre canina: bulimia; an extraordinary appetite; a very vehement desire.^[5]
5. hambre calagurritana (colloquial): a very violent hunger.^[5]
6. (Bolivia, Paraguay; adjective) Greedy for material goods.^[22]

Word family

• hambrear
• hambriento
• deshambrido

Related words

• famélico
• Latin famēs
• Portuguese fome
• Catalan fam

Usage notes

Hambre is feminine but takes el and un in the singular because it begins with stressed /a/: el hambre, mucha hambre.^[15][26] Román considered la hambre, used by the classical writers, antiquated, and criticised mucho hambre.^[18] Set phrases include matar el hambre, más listo que el hambre and juntarse el hambre con las ganas de comer.^[25]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 312
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. hambre
4. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. fames
5. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. hambre
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hambre
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3178
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 344
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. hambre
12. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. hambre
13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. hambre
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 959
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 125
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 461
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 555
18. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 103
19. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 240
20. ^ Tobar, Carlos R. (1907), Consultas al Diccionario de la lengua, 2nd ed., Barcelona: Imprenta de la Revista Ibérica, p. 270
21. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 102
22. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. hambre
23. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. hambre
24. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 360
25. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hambre
26. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1914), Apuntaciones críticas sobre el lenguaje bogotano, 6th ed., París: A. & R. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 203