Hunger Pains

If you've ever felt uncomfortable or even in pain in your stomach region after not eating for a time, you might mistakenly refer to such feelings as hunger pains when, in reality, the more accurate phrase is hunger pangs.

This error is logical and somewhat understandable. What exactly is a "pang"? A "short piercing spasm of pain" is what it is described as, and in a medical sense, it explicitly alludes to cramps brought on by hunger.

Once more, we are dealing with a word from the past that most people would never, ever use outside this specific statement. But unlike many other eggcorns, "pang" and "pain" are synonyms, so its replacement word also makes sense in the context of the phrase. Because of this, this saying has not only crept into common speech but also appears in published texts; as a result, occasionally even experts get it wrong.