食不果腹 (shí bù guǒ fù) — to be starving, to have insufficient food (idiom)

Definition

Literally 'food does not fill the belly' — a formal, written chengyu for severe hunger, used in literary or historical contexts about famine, war, or poverty. Often paired with 衣不蔽体.

idiom
to be starvingto have insufficient food (idiom)

Examples

  • ，食不果腹，。
    Dāng shí xǔ duō bǎi xìng yī bú bì tǐ, shí bù guǒ fù, shēng huó shí fēn jiān nán.
    At that time, many common people were barely clothed and starving, living a very hard life.
  • ，食不果腹，。
    Zhàn luàn nián dài, rén mín shí bù guǒ fù, mín bù liáo shēng.
    In the years of war, the people were starving and life was unbearable.
  • ，，食不果腹。
    Zhè piàn tǔ dì lián nián gān hàn, zhuāng jia jué shōu, cūn mín shí bù guǒ fù.
    This land suffered years of drought, crops failed completely, and the villagers were left starving.

Origin

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 亼亼jímouth
  • 皀皀jía bowl of rice on a stand

The form behind 食 shows 亼, a mouth, together with 皀, a bowl of rice on a stand. In modern 食, the bowl part has changed shape.

Open 食 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

Open 不 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

果 originally drew fruits hanging on a tree.

Open 果 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
肉肉ròumeat; flesh
Sound part声符shēngfú
复
复fù腹⁰fù
Same sound today

The left part 肉, meaning flesh, shows this is a body part, and the right part 复 gives the sound.

Open 腹 →

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