Dong Chinese dictionary

hungry

Simplified form of 餓. Phonosemantic compound. 饣 represents the meaning and 我 represents the sound.

Components

饣 Meaning component

shí

eat

饣 is a component form of 食.

我 Sound component

wǒ

I; me

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

Evolution

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Traditional script

Modern

Simplified script

Modern

Definitions

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

Most common words with 饿

Sources