fome

Forms

fome f (plural fomes)^[1] The medieval form was fame;^[2][3] fome appears in the 14th century.^[2][3] In two cantigas d'escarnho the manuscripts write fame, but the rhymes with ome and come show that the poets said fome.^[4] Galician and Mirandese still say fame.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin famēs (“hunger”), written Old Galician-Portuguese fame in the oldest texts.^[2][3][6] Wiktionary suggests that it may come through a Vulgar Latin variant *famen rather than the classical noun.^[1] The REW puts the Portuguese word with those from *famine, such as Spanish hambre, while García de Diego derives the Portuguese, Galician and Asturian forms from either one.^[7][8][9]

The change of ⟨a⟩ to ⟨o⟩ is irregular.^[10] Schuchardt and Cornu put it down to the neighbouring labial consonants, as does Nascentes.^[5][6] Others have thought of the influence of esfomear or of comer, which the DDGM rejects.^[10] It suggests the nasal, while Piel saw the emphatic way the word is said.^[10]

The same Latin word is Galician fame, Catalan fam, French faim, Italian fame and Romanian foame.^[7][1] The Romanian word, too, changed its vowel.^[1]

In Latin the noun was moving from the fifth declension to the third.^[11] Pokorny and Walde–Hofmann connected it with a root *dʰH- (“to disappear”), but de Vaan finds the forms and meanings too vague and leaves the origin open.^[1][11] The DHLF notes that it has no counterpart outside Latin.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1048 already has in anno arto et adqueixato de fame “in a year hard and troubled by hunger”.^[10] In Galician-Portuguese the word appears in the 13th century: in the Cantigas de Santa Maria a threat runs te farey de fame fĩir “I shall make you die of hunger”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The medieval texts use the word for hunger and for famine: the Miragres de Santiago tell of a famine so great that parents ate their children.^[10] Nascentes notes that a Latin–Portuguese dictionary printed at Coimbra in 1570 translates Latin fames sometimes as fame and sometimes as fome, and concludes that fome replaced fame in the literary language during the 16th century.^[5] Barbosa (1611) still refers fome to fame.^[13]

Morais (1813) has fome canina “insatiable hunger” and dar fome ao gavião, “to keep a hawk hungry so that it hunts better”, used figuratively for whetting someone's desire.^[14] Houaiss records the figurative sense “eager desire” (fome de saber) and also “sexual appetite”.^[2] In Mozambique apanhar fome means “to be hungry”.^[15]

Timeline

• 1048 – a Latin charter writes de fame.^[10]
• 13th century – fame in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[10][2]
• 14th century – first record of the form fome.^[2]
• c. 1430 – fome in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso heads the word Fome.^[17]
• 1611 – Barbosa refers fome to fame.^[13]
• 1813 – Morais records fome canina.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. hunger, the need or desire to eat: Depois do jogo estávamos cheios de fome.^[2][18][1]
2. undernourishment; the state of not having enough to eat.^[2][19]
3. famine, a lack of food in a region; hence poverty, want.^[2][15][1]
4. (figurative) A strong desire, craving: fome de justiça.^[2][18][1]
5. Sexual appetite.^[2]

Word family

• esfomear
• esfomeado
• esfaimado
• fominha

Related words

• faminto
• Latin famēs
• Galician fame
• Spanish hambre

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include matar a fome “to satisfy one's hunger”, enganar a fome “to eat something light to stave off hunger”, morrer de fome and fome de lobo “ravenous hunger”.^[2][1] Juntar a fome com a vontade de comer is said when two people's interests coincide.^[2][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fome
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fome
4. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. fome
5. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 221
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fome
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3178
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. fames
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 312
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. fame
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. faim
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fome
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 44
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fome
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. fome
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fome
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. fome
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4390
20. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. fome