foame

Forms

foame f (uncountable)^[1] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written фоаме.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin famēs (“hunger”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The diphthong ⟨oa⟩ is unexpected, since Latin stressed /a/ normally stays /a/, and it has been much discussed.^[2][1] Tiktin and the DA explain the /o/ by the labial consonants around it, as in the Portuguese word.^[6][2] Philippide, Densusianu and Pușcariu see a crossing with fōmes (“tinder”), which Ciorănescu thinks possible, comparing Romanian iască “tinder” from ēsca (“food”).^[2][5] Others start from an unstressed form such as fometos.^[2] Ciorănescu sees in foamete the trace of an old noun with two stems, like cap with its plural capete.^[2] Parallels with /a/ > /o/ are Dalmatian fum and Romanian înota from natō.^[2][1]

The noun survives in Aromanian foame and Istro-Romanian fome.^[2][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian fame, French faim, Spanish hambre and Portuguese fome.^[2][5] The Latin word has no sure cognates outside Latin: Wiktionary gives the traditional link with Proto-Indo-European *dʰH- (“to disappear”), which de Vaan rejects.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a personal name, Foame, in a Wallachian charter of 1519.^[6] As a common noun it appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Psalm 36:20).^[10] A 16th-century Gospel text says of the disciples (Matthew 12:1) „ucenicilor sei se făcu foame” “his disciples became hungry”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Since the earliest texts the noun means hunger, the need to eat; in the old language it also meant a famine, the sense now taken by foamete.^[3][6] The figurative “burning desire, greed” followed, as in foame de bani “greed for money”.^[11][12]

Hunger is expressed with the dative: mi-e foame “I am hungry”.^[6] Fixed phrases include foame de lup “a ravenous hunger” and a muri de foame “to starve; to be very poor”.^[3][6]

Timeline

• 1519 – Foame as a personal name in a Wallachian charter.^[6]
• early 16th century – foame in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[10]
• 1574 – the related foamete “famine” in a Tetraevangelion.^[3]
• 1682–1686 – foame in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. hunger: the recurring state of the body felt as the need to eat;^[11][1] mi-e foame “I am hungry”.^[11][1]
2. (figurative) A burning desire; greed.^[11][3]
3. (obsolete) famine.^[3]

Word family

• fometos
• înfometat
• înfometa

Related words

• foamete
• Aromanian foame

Usage notes

Foame de lup “wolf's hunger” is a ravenous appetite;^[3] a muri de foame is both “to starve” and, figuratively, “to be very poor”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. foame
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 922
4. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 55
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3178
6. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. foame
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 466
8. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 110
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 36:20
11. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 403
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. foame