Noun
famine (countable and uncountable, plural famines)
- (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.
- (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....
- (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.
- Severe shortage or lack of something.
Translations
extreme shortage of food in a region
- Afar: qulul
- Afrikaans: hongersnood
- Ainu: ケㇺ (kem)
- Arabic: مَجَاعَة f (majāʕa)
- 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, disette (fr) f
- Galician: laceira (gl) f, langrina f, lambrina f, gambrina f, gatuza f, garula f
- Georgian: შიმშილი (šimšili), შიმშილობა (šimšiloba)
- German: Hungersnot (de) f, Hunger (de) m
- Gothic: 𐌷𐌿𐌷𐍂𐌿𐍃 m (hūhrus)
- Greek: λιμός (el) m (limós), πείνα (el) f (peína)
- Ancient: λιμός m (limós)
- Gujarati: દુષ્કાળ m (duṣkāḷ)
- 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 (aşarşylyq), аштық (aştyq)
- Khmer: ទុរ្ភិក្ស (km) (tu’rəpʰik)
- Korean: 기아 (ko) (gia), 기근 (ko) (gigeun)
- Kurdish:
- Northern Kurdish: xela (ku) f
- Kyrgyz: ачтык (ky) (actık)
- 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
- Mauritian Creole: lafaminn
- 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) (gurusnagi)
- 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)
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a period of extreme shortage of food in a region
Etymology
Formed from the root of Latin famēs (“hunger”), with the suffix -ine.