# hunger / appetite



## sakvaka

I'm afraid I'll get many similar responses, but I'm interested in knowing what words your language uses for these two concepts.

*hunger*: state of being hungry
*appetite*: in developed cultures, a less demanding and more common feeling that usually replaces hunger

Here we go:

*Dutch*: honger vs. eetlust (eat lust) / trek (?)
*Finnish*: nälkä vs. ruokahalu (food lust)
*Swedish*: hunger vs. aptit / matlust (food lust)
*Italian*: fame vs. appetito

I wonder if we can find cultures that miss one of these concepts (African/Asian?).

Thank you!


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## Outsider

*Portuguese*: fome vs. apetite

Sometimes we also say _vontade de comer_ (urge to eat) for appetite.


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
*Hunger*-->«Πείνα» ('pina, _f._), from the same ancient Greek feminine noun «Πεῖνα» ('peină), Ionic «Πείνη», ('peinē):  _hunger, famine_
*Appetite*-->«Όρεξη» ('oreksi, _f._), from the same ancient Greek feminine noun «Ὄρεξις» ('oreksis): _appetite, conation_


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## phosphore

*Serbian:* glâd (f.) and apètīt (m.)


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## Awwal12

In *Russian*: голод (g*o*lod, m.) and аппетит (appet*i*t, m.).


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## Orlin

Bulgarian: глад (glad, m.) and апет*и*т (apet*i*t, m.).


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## Favara

*Catalan:* _Fam_ (f.) and _apetit_ (m.).
_Apetit_ is sometimes informally substituted by _goleta_, diminutive of _gola_ (gluttony).


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## ThomasK

Your Dutch is excellent, S, and this is certainly an interesting question! 

However, if you do not mind, I wish to point out some kind of cultural bias: you call _appetite_ typical of 'developed' cultures, whereas I could just as well call it 'an undesirable by-product of a society that knows no hunger'. For example we can have an appetite for Easter eggs, no hunger ;-)... Don't you think? 

But there is one meaning that 'transcends' cultures, I think. Some people who are ill, do not have 'eetlust', _appetite_, they do not feel the urge to eat, but that has nothing to do with hunger, I think: it seems to them that things do not taste good. I could imagine that Catalans would never substitute _goleta_ for _apetit_ in that case (though that is also an interesting cultural observation again).


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## Awwal12

> whereas I could just as well call it 'an undesirable by-product of a society that knows no hunger'.


I hardly can imagine a society whose members don't know a feel of hunger.  I don't mean a famine, of course, it is totally different thing. But we're going to off-topic, don't we?


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## Frank78

In German it's almost the same as in English:

Hunger (m)
Appetit (m)


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## Rallino

In Turkish:  

Hunger: Açlık
Appetite: İştah


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## ThomasK

Awwal12 said:


> I hardly can imagine a society whose members don't know a feel of hunger.  I don't mean a famine, of course, it is totally different thing. But we're going to off-topic, don't we?


 
I did not wish to go off-topic, Awwal, I thought my note was relevant because one meaning of appetite seemed different from the other. 

However, I  now realize indeed that I should have written *'famine'*, not 'hunger', which is another issue: in Dutch we only have the word 
- _*honger*_ (hunger), _*honger hebben*_ (_be hungry_, lit. _have hunger_) and 
- _*hongersnood*_ (_hunger-'s- need_ -- in fact: emergency caused by famine), but not a separate word for 'famine' as such... 

You see ?


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## sakvaka

ThomasK said:


> Some people who are ill, do not have 'eetlust', _appetite_, they do not feel the urge to eat, but that has nothing to do with hunger, I think: it seems to them that things do not taste good. I could imagine that Catalans would never substitute _goleta_ for _apetit_ in that case (though that is also an interesting cultural observation again). *etc etc*



Thank you for your additions, since I don't belive they contradict with my original phrasing.  Great observations, and very meaningful from the point of semantics!

In Finnish, people who don't have 'eetlust' because of illness etc. frequently say _Minulla ei ole nälkä_, even though they actually lack _appetite_.


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## ThomasK

But how about hunger vs. famine, S ? 

And how about my note if you change 'hunger' into 'famine' ? I mean: I think _eetlust_ or _trek_ and _appetijt_ with us are different; one (and lack of it) can be caused by a physical condition, whereas the other could also be caused by non-hungry people in the North, seduced by the look and smell of the food... Or do you have different words for that? 

I don't want to cause trouble, but try to show the complexity (in my view at least) of your - excellent - question...


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## sakvaka

In Finnish, _nälänhätä_ ("hunger emergency") is used. But I think _ruokahalu_ is just a simple desire of food that is not as urgent as _nälkä_. People may not eat because they're _hungry_, but because it's "time for dinner" or they _lusten_ a single piece of food — for example, easter eggs. 

*EDIT. *Also: _Bon appetit, hyvää ruokahalua!_


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## Encolpius

I doubt we will get responses from non-Europeans, they just do not visit that thread.  So you just must be satisfied with a *Hungarian *comment. 

*hunger *= éhség [*éh *(ancient word for hungry) + suffix *-ség* ]

*appetite *= we use the same compound as Finnish, Dutch and Swedish use. I wonder whom we adopted that from. 
étvágy (*ét *[ancient word for food] + *vágy *[lust])
Just like many languages we use the *e-* derivatives to express actions related to eating, food.


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## ThomasK

_Couldn't we entice them to come over, E ? Too bad indeed. maybe put a sign at Other Languages ?  ;-)_

How about _famine_ in Hungarian, E ? Just the same as _hunger_ ? 
BTW: is the sèg a substantive suffix (as is _orszàg_, country, I believe)?


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## sakvaka

Encolpius said:


> etc.



This is not fair, you have retained the original words, and we have to content ourselves with Germanic borrowings! ;-)


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## Encolpius

ThomasK said:


> _Couldn't we entice them to come over, E ? Too bad indeed. maybe put a sign at Other Languages ?  ;-)_
> 
> How about _famine_ in Hungarian, E ? Just the same as _hunger_ ?
> BTW: is the sèg a substantive suffix (as is _orszàg_, country, I believe)?



We should rather change the *ALL *language name.  Since there are 6000 languages, and you see there are only 5-10 member visiting this forum. But 20-30 permanent members would satisfy my expectations. 

Famine is éhség or éhinség, with e- of course. 
Yes, -ség / -ság (vowel harmony) is a substantive suffix [just like beteg (sick) + -ség = betegség (sickness) ]


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## ThomasK

Where can we address our moderators and suggest this change ? ;-)


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## Encolpius

ThomasK said:


> Where can we address our moderators and suggest this change ? ;-)



I never address them, they usually addressed me before deleting my topics.  But it is about the poor marketing here. And my proposal is "more languages" forum. Far far away from ALL.


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## sakvaka

Encolpius said:


> I never address them, they usually addressed me before deleting my topics.  But it is about the poor marketing here. And my proposal is "more languages" forum. Far far away from ALL.



No hurry, first we Finno-Ugrians need a forum of our own!!

_Don't you think this starts to resemble chatspeak? Lopetetaan hyvän sään aikana. ("Let's stop when the weather is still good")._


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## Encolpius

sakvaka said:


> No hurry, first we Finno-Ugrians need a forum of our own!!
> 
> _Don't you think this starts to resemble chatspeak? Lopetetaan hyvän sään aikana. ("Let's stop when the weather is still good")._



First I should speak better Finnish to make better and more interesting comments.


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## ThomasK

Ok, back to reality. But still, regrettable that we do not have other visitors telling us about their hunger and appetite ! ;-)


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## Encolpius

ThomasK said:


> Ok, back to reality. But still, regrettable that we do not have other visitors telling us about their hunger and appetite ! ;-)



And I am afraid we are the last of the Mohicans here in this interesting multicultural, multi-linguistic, nations-gathering thread. See this. We may soon die out.


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## enoo

French : Faim (hunger), appétit (appetite)

(To me, in the food context, "appétit" can only be used after one started eating - so I guess it kind of "replace" hunger, yes. I see it as a temporal difference, more than a different feeling. Hmm... I'm not sure my explanation makes sense.)

It seems that Breton too has 2 different words, (respectively _naon_ and _kalon_) - but it would be better if a 'real' speaker could confirm.


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## ThomasK

Encolpius said:


> And I am afraid we are the last of the Mohicans here in this interesting multicultural, multi-linguistic, nations-gathering thread. See this. We may soon die out.


 
IN the meantime I have supported you in suggesting splitting up the thread. See over there !


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