hambre

Spanish

Alternative forms

• fambre (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish fambre, fanbre, famne (compare Ladino ambre), from Vulgar Latin *faminem (possibly the accusative of a variant nominative form *famen or *famis), from Classical Latin famēs, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰH- (“to disappear”). Compare also Portuguese fome, Galician fame, French faim, dialectal Occitan hame, Italian fame, Sardinian fámine, famen, Romanian foame. Cognate with English famine, famish. Doublet of fame.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈambɾe/ [ˈãm.bɾe]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ambɾe
• Syllabification: ham‧bre

Noun

hambre f (plural hambres)

1. hunger

   ¿Qué te parece si comemos ahorita? – No tengo mucha hambre.

   What do you think if we eat right now? – I'm not very hungry.

   Sí, me muero de hambre.

   Yes, I'm starving.

   (literally, “dying of hunger”)

Usage notes

• Feminine nouns beginning with stressed /ˈa/ like hambre take the singular definite article el (otherwise reserved for masculine nouns) instead of the usual la: el hambre. This includes the contracted forms al and del (instead of a la and de la, respectively): al hambre, del hambre.

These nouns also usually take the indefinite article un that is otherwise used with masculine nouns (although the standard feminine form una is also permitted): un hambre or una hambre. The same is true with determiners algún/alguna and ningún/ninguna, as well as for numerals ending with 1 (e.g., veintiún/veintiuna).

However, if another word intervenes between the article and the noun, the usual feminine singular articles and determiners (la, una etc.) must be used: la mejor hambre, una buena hambre.

• If an adjective follows the noun, it must agree with the noun's gender regardless of the article used: el hambre única, un(a) hambre buena.
• In the plural, the usual feminine singular articles and determiners (las, unas etc.) are always used.

Derived terms

• a buen hambre no hay pan duro
• a mucha hambre, no hay pan duro
• apagar el hambre
• comerse los codos de hambre
• del año del hambre
• hambre calagurritana
• hambre canina
• huelga de hambre
• juntarse el hambre con las ganas de comer
• más cornadas da el hambre
• más listo que el hambre
• matar de hambre
• matar el hambre
• morir de hambre, morirse de hambre
• muerto de hambre
• pan para hoy, hambre para mañana
• ración de hambre
• tengo hambre

 

Related terms

• hambriento
• hambruna

 

Further reading

• “hambre”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10