Dong Chinese dictionary

hungry

Phonosemantic compound. 飠 represents the meaning and 我 represents the sound.

Components

飠 Meaning component

shí

eat

飠 is a component form of 食.

我 Sound component

wǒ

I; me

餓 and 我 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.餓 /*ŋˤaj-s/
我 /*ŋˤajʔ/

Evolution

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

hungry; greedy for; hunger; to be hungry; to starve (sb)

Most common words with 餓

Sources