I've got a Duolingo question phrased like this:
Il contadino dava da mangiare al cavallo ogni giorno.
My best attempt at translation is something like:
"The farmer gave his horse from hunger every day"
Is this related to how one "has hunger"? (Ho fame) Is it just a difference of thinking about the sentiment?
No, the correct translation is:
The farmer fed his horse every day.
or
The farmer gave something to eat to his horse every day
In Italian "dare da mangiare" (lit. "to give [something] to eat") means "to feed", and it has nothing to with "being hungry" (i.e. "avere fame").
Maybe one of the reasons you are confused is that you are translating da with "from". But in this case this is not the correct translation: it should be translated with to (i.e. it introduces the aim of the action, not its provenance). Unfortunately prepositions are very hard to translate between different languages.
The two words together, "da mangiare", can mean "food", constructed with "da" like, for example,
(Note that similar forms are not always good italian, but are widely used; for example macchina da scrivere is often considered an error, but is much more common than macchina per scrivere).
About da mangiare, the real meaning is "[cosa buona] da mangiare" ("good to eat", or "appropriate to be eaten"), like legna da ardere which means "wood good for burning".
The following phrases can be seen normally:
Now, "dare da mangiare" has two nuances, "to give food" or "to feed". Probably a farmer feeds his horse, where a wife gives food to her husband (unless he needs assistance).
