sevdah

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish سودا (sevda) (compare Turkish sevda (“love”)), from Arabic سَوْدَاء (sawdāʔ, “black [bile]”), translation of the Greek μέλαινα χολή (mélaina kholḗ) from which the term melancholy is derived.

Akin to sevdàlīnka, sevdàlija, sevdàluk, sèvdi, sèvdisati.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sěʋdaːx/
• Hyphenation: sev‧dah

Noun

sèvdāh m (Cyrillic spelling сѐвда̄х)

1. (regional) love, lovesickness
2. (regional) yearning for love

Declension

Declension of sevdah

	singular	plural
nominative	sevdah	sevdasi
genitive	sevdáha	sevdaha
dative	sevdahu	sevdasima
accusative	sevdah	sevdahe
vocative	sevdaše	sevdasi
locative	sevdahu	sevdasima
instrumental	sevdahom	sevdasima

Synonyms

• čežnja

References

• “sevdah”, in Hrvatski jezični portal (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2024
• Škaljić, Abdulah (1966) Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku, Sarajevo: Svjetlost, page 561