Etymology

hunger

hun·ger
H4U1N1G2E1R1

Today it means: A need or compelling desire for food. Full definition →

Middle English hunger ← Old English hungor ← Proto-West Germanic *hungr
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hunger · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*kenk-“to burn, smart, desire, hunger, thirst”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*hungruz
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*hungr
  4. Old English · inherited fromhungor“hunger, desire; famine”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromhunger
  6. English todayhunger

From Middle English hunger, from Old English hungor (“hunger, desire; famine”), from Proto-West Germanic *hungr, 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”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hunger (“hunger”), Faroese and Icelandic hungur (“hunger”).

hunger · verb2

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*hungrijaną
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*hungrijan
  3. Old English · inherited fromhyngran
  4. Middle English · inherited fromhungren
  5. English todayhunger

From Middle English hungren, from Old English hyngran, hyngrian, ġehyngrian (“to be hungry”), from Proto-West Germanic *hungrijan, from Proto-Germanic *hungrijaną.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishhungor all →

Hungerford

Proto-Indo-European*kenk- all →

hockMinto

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.