different between hungry vs keen

English

Etymology

From Middle English hungry, from Old English hungri?, hungre?, hyngri?, from Proto-West Germanic *hungrug, from Proto-Germanic *hungrugaz (“hungry”); equivalent to hunger +? -y. Cognate with West Frisian hongerich (“hungry”), Dutch hongerig (“hungry”), German hungrig (“hungry”), Swedish hungrig (“hungry”), Icelandic hungraður (“hungry”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h??.??i/
• Homophone: Hungary (in some accents)

Adjective

hungry (comparative hungrier, superlative hungriest)

1. Affected by hunger; desiring of food; having a physical need for food; such as a person's stomach rumbling, growling or grumbling.

2. Causing hunger

   All this gardening is hungry work.

3. (figuratively) Eager, having an avid desire (‘appetite’) for something.
   • 1850, Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke, London: Chapman & Hall, Volume 2, Chapter 5, p. 56,^[1]

     They rowed her in across the rolling foam,

     The cruel, crawling foam,

     The cruel, hungry foam,

     To her grave beside the sea:

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2,^[2]

     Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;

4. Not rich or fertile; poor; barren; starved.
   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act V, Scene 3,^[3]

     […] What is this?

     Your knees to me? to your corrected son?

     Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach

     Fillip the stars […]

Synonyms

• (affected by hunger, desiring food): famished, peckish, starving

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• thirsty
• I am hungry

Middle English

Alternative forms

• (Early ME) hungrig, hunngri?, houngrie
• hungrie, hungri, hungre, hungery, hongry, hungury, hungorie, hungrye

Etymology

From Old English hungri?, from Proto-Germanic *hungragaz; equivalent to hunger +? -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?hun?ri?/, [?hu??ri?]

Adjective

hungry

1. Hungry or starving; afflicted by hunger or starvation.
2. Voracious; having a great desire or compulsion to eat.
3. Haggard, scrawny; shriveled due to hunger or starvation.
4. (rare) Due to hunger; because of one's appetite.
5. (rare) Desirous; wanting something to a great degree.
6. (rare) Causing or producing hunger.
7. (rare) Of earth; not productive.

Descendants

• English: hungry
• Scots: hungry
• Yola: hungree

References

• “hungr?(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-19.

Noun

hungry

1. Those who are hungry, starving, or of little means.

References

• “hungr?(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-19.

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ki?n/
• (General American) enPR: k?n, IPA^(key): /kin/
• Rhymes: -i?n
• Homophones: Keane, Keene

Etymology 1

From Middle English kene (“bold, brave, sharp”), from Old English c?ne (“keen, fierce, bold, brave, warlike, powerful; learned, clever, wise”), from Proto-Germanic *k?niz (“knowledgeable, skilful, experienced, clever, capable”), from Proto-Indo-European *?neh?- (“to know”). Cognate with Danish køn (“handsome, pretty”), Dutch kien (“smart, wise, able”), koen (“daring, valiant, doughty, courageous”), German kühn (“bold, daring, audacious, hardy, valiant, venturesome”), Icelandic kænn (“wise, crafty, clever, able”), Scots keen (“lively, brisk; avaricious”). Related to Old English cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”). More at cunning, can.

Alternative forms

• keene, kene (both obsolete)

Adjective

keen (comparative keener or more keen, superlative keenest or most keen)

1. (chiefly Commonwealth of Nations) Often with a prepositional phrase, or with to and an infinitive: showing a quick and ardent responsiveness or willingness; eager, enthusiastic, interested.
   • 2000, Jane Green, Bookends, London: Penguin Books, ?ISBN; republished as Bookends: A Novel, trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, 2003, ?ISBN, page 304:

     In fact, she doesn't mention the fact that I've obviously been avoiding her, just sounds genuinely thrilled to hear from me, and as soon as I mention getting together she suggests Monday, which is rather keen, even for Portia.

2. Fierce, intense, vehement.
3. Having a fine edge or point; sharp.
4. Acute of mind, having or expressing mental acuteness; penetrating, sharp.
5. Acrimonious, bitter, piercing.
6. Of cold, wind, etc.: cutting, penetrating, piercing, sharp.
   • 1764 December 19 (indicated as 1765), Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society. A Poem. Inscribed to the Rev. Henry Goldsmith, London: Printed for J[ohn] Newbery, ?OCLC; 3rd edition, London: Printed for J. Newbury,^{[sic, meaning Newbery]} in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1765, ?OCLC, page 10:

     Chearful at morn he wakes from ?hort repo?e, / Brea?ts the keen air, and carolls as he goes; […]

7. (Britain) Of prices, extremely low as to be competitive.
8. (US, informal, dated) Marvelous.
9. (obsolete) Brave, courageous; audacious, bold.

Usage notes

Keen is often used to create compounds, the meaning of most of them being fairly obvious, for example, keen-edged, keen-eyed, keen-sighted, keen-witted, etc.

Synonyms

• (showing a quick and ardent responsiveness or willingness): ardent, eager, prompt
• (having a fine edge or point): sharp
• (acrimonious): biting, cutting, piercing
• (acute of mind): acute, penetrating, shrewd; see also Thesaurus:intelligent

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

keen (third-person singular simple present keens, present participle keening, simple past and past participle keened)

1. (transitive, rare) To make cold, to sharpen.
   • 1730, James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, A Hymn, A Poem to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and Britannia, a Poem, London, Printed for J. Millan, near Whitehall; and A[ndrew] Millar, in the Strand, ?OCLC; republished in The Works of James Thomson. With His Last Corrections and Improvements. In Four Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand, 1766, ?OCLC, page 93, lines 1256–1259:

     This is the pure?t exerci?e of health, / The kind refre?her of the ?ummer-heats; / Nor, when cold Winter keens the brightening flood, / Would I weak-?hivering linger on the brink.

Etymology 2

From Irish caoin (“to cry, weep; to keen”).

Noun

keen (plural keens)

1. A prolonged wail for a deceased person.

Verb

keen (third-person singular simple present keens, present participle keening, simple past and past participle keened)

1. (intransitive) To utter a keen.
   • 20th century, Stuart Howard-Jones (1904–1974), “Hibernia”, in Kingsley Amis, comp., The New Oxford Book of English Light Verse, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1978, ?ISBN, page 243:

     Last night he had put down too much Potheen / (A vulgar blend of Methyl and Benzene) / That, at some Wake, he might the better keen. / (Keen—meaning 'brisk'? Nay, here the Language warps: / 'Tis singing bawdy Ballads to a Corpse.)

2. (transitive) To utter with a loud wailing voice or wordless cry.
3. (transitive) To mourn.

Related terms

• keener

References

Anagrams

• Enke, kene, knee, kène, neek

Basque

Noun

keen

1. genitive plural of ke

Hunsrik

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?e?n/

Particle

keen

1. no, not any, not a

Declension

¹Form used when the plural of the noun is the same as the singular

Further reading

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

Luxembourgish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ke?n/
  • Rhymes: -e?n

Particle

keen m or n

1. no, not any, not a

Declension

Somali

Verb

keen

1. bring

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English kene, from Old English c?ne.

Adjective

keen

1. sharp

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN