Avere una fame da lupi

How do people use Avere una fame da lupi?

Everyday Italian that you can say to anyone, from your grandmother to a waiter. It nearly always comes in the first person, as a complaint before a meal: “ho una fame da lupi”. The wolf can be singular or plural and both sound natural.

Also said avere una fame da lupo

Avere una fame da lupi in real sentences

• Ho una fame da lupi.

  I am terribly hungry.

  Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR

• L’alpinista aveva una fame da lupi.

  The mountaineer was hungry as a wolf.

  Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, translation by keira_n, CC BY 2.0 FR

Where does Avere una fame da lupi come from?

English Wiktionary lists “fame da lupo” with “fame da lupi” as an alternative form and points to French “faim de loup” and Romanian “foame de lup”, so several Romance languages share the hungry wolf. Treccani gives “avevo una fame da lupo” under “lupo” and notes that “lupo” on its own can mean a greedy, starving person. Nobody has pinned down a first use; the picture rests on the wolf’s old reputation as an animal that is always hungry.

Mistakes learners make with Avere una fame da lupi

Saying “sono affamato come un lupo”. Italians don’t say they are hungry, they say they have hunger (“avere fame”), so the wolf has to hang off the noun: “ho una fame da lupi”.

Other Italian idioms like Avere una fame da lupi

• avere un buco nello stomaco (to have a hole in your stomach)
• morire di fame (to be dying of hunger)
• avere una fame nera (to have a black hunger)
• mangerei un bue (I could eat an ox)