hongerlijke

Hongerlijke is a historical Dutch adjective that is now rarely used. In contemporary Dutch, the form is considered archaic or dialectal and does not appear in standard dictionaries.

Etymologically, hongerlijke likely derives from the noun hong er “hunger” with the adjectival suffix -lijk, producing a sense along the lines of “hunger-related” or “hunger-inducing.” This formation fits a pattern of -lijk adjectives created from a noun, common in older stages of the language.

Meaning and use of the term are largely tied to historical texts. In older writings, hongerlijke would describe food, meals, or settings that were believed to provoke appetite or to be especially enticing in the context of hunger. Because the word is not part of modern usage, its interpretation depends on the surrounding context and the conventions of the period in which it appears.

Relation to modern Dutch is clear: today speakers would more likely use woorden such as heerlijk, smakelijk, or appetijtelijk to express “delicious” or “tasty.” Hongerlijke does not carry a standard contemporary meaning and can be confusing to modern readers if encountered outside historical or dialectal contexts.

Notes: The term is obscure and obscurely documented in mainstream lexica. For precise usage, one would consult historical Dutch dictionaries or corpora of Early Modern Dutch to verify attestations and meanings in specific texts. See also heerlijk, smakelijk, archaic Dutch terms.