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• esurient •

Pronunciation: i-sur-i-yênt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Craving food, starving, voracious, famished. 2. Devouring food in great quantities. 3. Ardently desirous of anything.

Notes: This Good Word is the adjective for an archaic noun esure "the process of eating". Two nouns have been derived from it, esurience and esuriency; use either without prejudice. The adverb, of course, is esuriently.

In Play: The basic meaning of today's Good Word is "famished": "Annabelle looked esuriently at the chocolate mocha yaya, a trickle of saliva creeping out of the corner of her mouth." Cleveland was more esurient for the yaya than Annabelle and snatched it from her purview. This word's meaning can be stretched to anything we may hunger for: "After one of the most demanding weeks at the office, John found himself esurient for a weekend at the beach."

Word History: This word comes from Latin esurien(t)s "wanting to eat", the present participle of esurire "to want to eat", the desiderative form of edere "to eat". The root of the Latin word came, unchanged, from PIE ed- "eat, bite". We find this root in words for "eat" throughout the Indo-European languages: English eat, German essen, Russian est'. We find it in many English words borrowed from Latin: edible, esculent, and obese. The last word comes from Latin obesus "overeaten", the past participle of obedere "to devour, eat away", containing ob-, an intensive prefix + edere "to eat". We get alfalfa from Spanish. Spanish obtained the word from Arabic al-fasfasa, comprising al "the" + fasfasa "alfalfa". Arabic borrowed this word from Middle Persian aspast, from Old Iranian aspasti- "clover, alfalfa", comprising aspa- "horse" + (e)sti- "food, fodder", literally "horse food". (alphaDictionary is esurient for more quality Good Words like today's from Jeremy Busch via the Alpha Agora.)

Okay, does anyone know what "yaya" is? It's not turning up in my web searches. Not as a food to stimulate esurience, at least.

Only six years late.

try this?
https://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desser ... lata-yaya/

Thank you. Now, can you tell me what yaya means? Is it Anglicized German for an emphatic positive answer to "Do you want dessert?"

"yaya" is certainly a Greek grandmother, "γιαγιά".

And maybe that's what's meant here, although I too found that sentence not entirely scrutable.

Looking at various "slang" dictionaries, I can only say, it is slang, and it seems to be used in many ways, but a common theme is that it is an emphatic positive.

Auf Deutsch: JA, JA!

At least they didn't use French.

there is an actress on Chicago Med with the name YaYa DeCosta.
I had an internet tech come to my house with the first name
of Yaya. He was from the West African country of Burkino Faso.
We had a most interesting discussion

There was also a movie, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

It is slang, and seems to have many meanings, none that I found specifically referring to food, but many sharing one characteristic, that being affirmation.

It is hard to incorporate new slang, I find.

Except for the German word, I have never encountered ya ya. Yeah is sort of a Southern yep. As for the Good Doctor's word "esurient" it is new to me but sounds like a word one might use. Having topped my maximum allowable weight I cannot afford to be esurient.

THe chocolate mocha yaya I had in mind is the best chocolate dessert in the world prepared by the Swedish chef at the Lightfoot Cafe in Leesburg, Virginia. Here is a picture without the heap of whipped cream that now accompanies it.

Now, I've had Sacher torte at the Sacher hotel in Vienna, which I considered the best chocolate dessert in the world until I tasted the chocolate mocha yaya. My wife and I loved it so much the first time we ordered it, that we ordered one each the second time we visited the Lightfoot. We couldn't eat all of both, it is so rich. So, now we just share one.

I just discovered that on the Lightfoot's website, yaya is spelled ya ya. We always get the same dessert there so we never look at the dessert menu, using our ever-ageing memories. This supports Slava's analysis. It could be yes-yes in Swedish. I'll check with the chef the next time we're there.

Good Doctor: Now I am esurient. If I had known about Lightfoot Café in Leesburg, Virginia I would have patronized it last time I was there. If I can get a chauffer, I might just drop by.

Philip,

You won't be disappointed. Ask Chef Ingrid where the "ya ya" came from and what it means.