famine

famine

See also: Famine

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French famine, itself from the root of Latin fames. Cognate with Spanish hambruna (“famine”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfæmɪn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmɪn
• Hyphenation: fam‧ine

Noun

famine (countable and uncountable, plural famines)

1. (uncountable) Extreme shortage of food in a region.
   • 1831 July 15, “Of the Blood”, in Western Journal of Health‎, volume 4, number 1, L. B. Lincoln, page 38:

     It was reserved for Christians to torture bread, the staff of life, bread for which children in whole districts wail, bread, the gift of pasture to the poor, bread, for want of which thousands of our fellow beings annually perish by famine; it was reserved for Christians to torture the material of bread by fire, to create a chemical and maddening poison, burning up the brain and brutalizing the soul, and producing evils to humanity, in comparison of which, war, pestilence, and famine, cease to be evils.

   • 1971, Central Institute of Research & Training in Public Cooperation

     Dr. Bhatia pointed out that famine had occurred in all ages and in all societies where means of communication and transport were not developed.

2. (countable) A period of extreme shortage of food in a region.
   • 1986, United States Congress, House Select Committee on Hunger, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, Famine and Recovery in Africa

     The root causes of the current famine are known: poverty, low health standards....

3. (dated) Starvation or malnutrition.
   • 1871 (orig. 426), Augustine, The City of God, transl. Marcus Dods:

     His own flesh, however, which he lost by famine, shall be restored to him by Him who can recover even what has evaporated.

4. Severe shortage or lack of something.
   • the Lancashire Cotton Famine

Derived terms

• famine fever
• famine food
• famine resistant
• famine weed
• feast or famine
• nuclear famine

 

Translations

extreme shortage of food in a region

Afar: qulul Afrikaans: hongersnood Ainu: ケㇺ (kem) Arabic: مَجَاعَة‎ f (majāʿa) Armenian: սով (hy) (sov) Aromanian: foamitã Azerbaijani: aclıq (az) Bashkir: аслыҡ (aslıq), йот (yot) Basque: gosete Belarusian: го́лад (be) m (hólad) Bulgarian: глад (bg) m (glad) Burmese: အငတ်ဘေး (my) (a.ngatbhe:) Cherokee: ᎠᎪᎾ (agona) Chichewa: njala Chinese: Mandarin: 饑荒／饥荒 (zh) (jīhuāng) Coptic: ϩⲕⲟ (hko) Czech: hladomor (cs) m, hlad (cs) m Danish: hungersnød c Dutch: hongersnood (nl) m Esperanto: malsatego Estonian: näljahäda Finnish: nälänhätä (fi) French: famine (fr) f Georgian: შიმშილი (šimšili), შიმშილობა (šimšiloba) German: Hungersnot (de) f, Hunger (de) m Gothic: 𐌷𐌿𐌷𐍂𐌿𐍃 m (huhrus) Greek: λιμός (el) m (limós), πείνα (el) f (peína) Ancient: λιμός m (limós) Hebrew: רָעָב‎ (he) m (ra'áv) Hindi: अकाल (hi) m (akāl) Hungarian: éhínség (hu) Icelandic: hungursneyð (is) f Ido: famino (io) Irish: gorta (ga) m Italian: carestia (it) f Japanese: 飢饉 (ja) (ききん, kikin) Kabuverdianu: fómi Kazakh: ашаршылық (kk) (aşarşylyq), аштық (kk) (aştyq) Khmer: ទុរ្ភិក្ស (km) (tu’rəpʰik) Korean: 기아 (ko) (gia), 기근 (ko) (gigeun) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: xela (ku) f Kyrgyz: ачтык (ky) (açtık) Latin: famēs f Latvian: bads m Lithuanian: badmetis m, alkis (lt) m, badas (lt) m Macedonian: глад m (glad) Malayalam: പട്ടിണി (ml) (paṭṭiṇi) Mansaka: gutum Maori: matekaitanga Maranao: kanggotma Mongolian: өлсгөлөн (mn) (ölsgölön) Navajo: hodichin, dichin Norwegian: Bokmål: hungersnød m or f Nynorsk: hungersnaud f, hungersnød f Occitan: famina f Old Church Slavonic: Cyrillic: гладъ m (gladŭ) Old English: hungor m Persian: قحطی‎ (fa) (qahti), گرسنگی‎ (fa) (gorosnegi) Plautdietsch: Hungaschnoot f Polish: głód (pl) m, klęska głodu f Portuguese: fome (pt) f Romanian: foamete (ro) n Russian: го́лод (ru) m (gólod) Saho: culul Scottish Gaelic: gort m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: глад m Roman: glad (sh) m Slovak: hladomor m, hlad (sk) m Slovene: lakota (sl) f Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: głod m Upper Sorbian: hłód m Spanish: hambruna (es), hambre (es) Swedish: hungersnöd (sv) c Tagalog: taggutom Tajik: гуруснагӣ (tg) (gurusnagī) Tatar: ачлык (tt) (açlıq) Thai: ทุพภิกขภัย (th) (túp-pík-kà-pai), ข้าวยากหมากแพง (th) (kâao yâak màak paeng) Tibetan: མུ་གེ (mu ge) Turkish: kıtlık (tr), açlık (tr), yokluk (tr), darlık (tr) Ukrainian: го́лод m (hólod) Urdu: اکال‎ m (akāl) Vietnamese: nạn đói Welsh: newyn m West Frisian: hongersneed, breakrapte Yiddish: הונגער‎ m (hunger)

a period of extreme shortage of food in a region

Armenian: սով (hy) (sov) Belarusian: го́лад (be) m (hólad) Bulgarian: глад (bg) m (glad) Burmese: ဒုဗ္ဘိက္ခန္တရကပ် (my) (dubbhikhkanta.ra.kap) Chinese: Literary Chinese: 饑饉 Mandarin: 饑荒／饥荒 (zh) (jīhuāng) Czech: hladomor (cs) m, hlad (cs) m Finnish: nälänhätä (fi) French: famine (fr) f German: Hungersnot (de) f, Hunger (de) m Gothic: 𐌷𐌿𐌷𐍂𐌿𐍃 m (huhrus) Greek: Ancient: λιμός m (limós) Irish: gorta (ga) m Italian: carestia (it) Kabuverdianu: fómi Maori: matekaitanga, tau tukuroa, tau nihoroa Old English: hungor m Plautdietsch: Hungaschnoot f Polish: głód (pl) m, klęska głodu f Portuguese: fome (pt) f Romanian: foamete (ro) f Russian: го́лод (ru) m (gólod) Slovak: hladomor m, hlad (sk) m Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: głod m Swedish: svält (sv) c Tagalog: taggutom Turkish: kıtlık (tr), açlık (tr) Ukrainian: го́лод m (hólod), голодомо́р m (holodomór) Welsh: newyn m

Anagrams

• imafen, infame

---

French

Etymology

From Middle French and Old French famine, formed from the root of Latin famēs (“hunger”) with the suffix -ine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fa.min/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

famine f (plural famines)

1. famine

Derived terms

• crier famine

Related terms

• faim

Further reading

• “famine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• infâme

---

Old French

Etymology

Formed from the root of Latin famēs (“hunger”), with the suffix -ine.

Noun

famine f (oblique plural famines, nominative singular famine, nominative plural famines)

1. famine

Related terms

• fain

Descendants

• Middle French: famine
  • → English: famine
  • French: famine