hunger stone

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English[edit]

WOTD – 7 May 2020

Etymology[edit]

A hunger stone in the Elbe river at Děčín, Czech Republic, known to have inscriptions dating to the 15th century. A Czech sentence probably added in 1938 reads: “Neplač holka, nenaříkej, když je sucho, pole stříkej“ (“Girl, don’t weep and moan, if it’s dry, water the field”).

Calque of German Hungerstein, from Hunger (“hunger”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kenk- (“to burn, smart; desire; hunger, thirst”)) + Stein (“rock, stone”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- (“to stiffen”)).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

hunger stone (plural hunger stones)

  1. A stone, either naturally exposed or intentionally embedded in a river during a drought, which is dated and often inscribed to mark the water level as a warning to future generations that they may face famine if the water reaches that low level again. Such stones are common in Central Europe.
    • 1918 August 14, “Topics of Interest in Northern Wisconsin”, in Thomas J. Keenan, editor, Paper: A Weekly Technical Journal for Paper and Pulp Mills, volume XXII, number 23, New York, N.Y.: Paper, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 21, column 1:
      If there were a "hunger stone" in the Fox river like the one in the Elbe, it would now be showing its unwelcome face above the waters—which is equivalent to saying that the water level, and power correspondingly, is very low indeed.
    • 1946, The New Yorker, volume 22, part 5, New York, N.Y.: F-R Publishing Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 69, column 1:
      In the Rhine, off Bingen, there is a cluster of rocks known as the "hunger stones," which are visible only in years of extraordinary, protracted dry weather. When they can be seen, it is supposed to mean a year of poor food crops but incomparable wine.
    • 1993, Alfred-Herrhausen-Gesellschaft für Internationalen Dialog [Alfred Herrhausen Society for International Dialogue], Society in Paralysis during Times of Change: Reasons, Consequences, Remedies: First Annual Colloquium, June 11/12, 1993, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschel Verlag, →ISBN:
      Being here in Frankfurt reminds me of this region's famous »Hungersteine«, or hunger stones, as the Main River boatmen used to call the rocks that became visible when the water level was low.
    • 2000, Werner H. Von Rosenstiel, Tales of an American Soldier: From KP to Seeing His Former Nazi Leaders in the Dock at Neuremberg, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Xlibris, →ISBN; republished as Hitler’s Soldier in the U.S. Army: An Unlikely Memoir of WW II (Fire Ant Books), Tuscaloosa, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 2006, →ISBN, page 45:
      It sat on the bluffs of the Susquehanna, where I discovered the hunger stones, which in most years were covered by the river and could be seen only during drought years.
    • 2020, Valerie Trouet, “Winter is Coming”, in Tree Story: The History of the World Written in Rings, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 92:
      Our ancestors were creative in the ways they commemorated historical climactic events. A 2018 summer drought, for example, exposed "hunger stones" in the Czech Elbe River. Records of extremely low water levels from the fifteenth through the nineteenth century, as well as warnings of their consequences, have been chiseled into these river boulders. For instance, one carved hunger stone reads, "Wenn Du mich siehst, dann weine." If you see me, weep.

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