Hyngrian

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. An archaic Old English verb meaning to experience hunger or to go without food for a time
2. An old word for feeling the pangs of hunger or lacking enough food to eat
3. Describing the Old English action of being hungry, or wanting food and suffering for lack of it

Etymology: Before it described an empty stomach, this Old English verb simply meant "to be hungry" or "to suffer hunger." It was built from the noun "hungor," the Old English word for hunger, with the "-ian" ending that regularly turned nouns into verbs. The form is a straightforward derivative of that noun. Modern "hungry" does not come directly from this verb. It descends from the Old English adjective "hungrig," formed from the same noun "hungor" with the adjective suffix "-ig." That adjective is the form that survived into present-day English. The noun has close relatives across the Germanic languages: German "Hunger" and Dutch "honger" share the same root, showing that the word was already established in the family long before English existed.