saudade
Language: Portuguese · [sɐwˈðaðɨ] · Pronunciation: sow-DAH-duh
Pronunciation: Aliphee · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Meaning
a bittersweet ache for what's absent — longing
The story
Portugal built a whole musical genre on it: fado is saudade set to guitars, and Brazil gives the feeling its own calendar day each January. English readers may know the word from untranslatable lists, which is cheating slightly, because it translates most of the way. It lands somewhere between longing and yearning.
The four rounds
- Which language is it from?
- Portuguese
- Which feeling does it carry?
- Aching for home, even for people
- Where would you hear it?
- In a fado house in Lisbon, lights low
- What does it mean?
- A bittersweet ache for what's gone
How it went
One of the easier words so far.
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