Esurient

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɪˈsjʊə.ɹɪ.ənt/

Definitions

1. Extremely hungry or greedy, especially for food or wealth
2. Exhibiting a voracious hunger or insatiable greed, typically for food or wealth, one displays an intense craving for sustenance or possessions
3. Feeling a strong desire for food or material gain, showing intense hunger or craving

Etymology: Hunger is baked into this word's grammar. The Latin verb "esurire" meant "to be hungry," and its present participle "esuriens" ("hungering") gave English a word that means exactly that, with no softening. The verb itself is a desiderative formation: it is built on "edere," "to eat," with a suffix expressing a desire for an action. So the Latin verb does not merely mean "to eat" but "to want to eat," and the whole word is essentially a built-in craving. English borrowed the adjective directly from Latin, so it stayed close to its original sense for centuries. Its root "edere" is also the ancestor of the familiar English word "edible" and of Latin's "edere" relatives in many other languages, which makes "esurient" a distant cousin of everyday words about eating. Its rarity today is part of its charm: where English speakers usually say "hungry," this word reaches back to the Roman verb for an appetite that is more pointed and almost eager.

Synonyms: starving, hungry, ravenous, voracious, insatiable

Antonyms: satiated, full, satisfied, content, fed