saudade

Galician

Alternative forms

• soidade

Etymology

From Old Galician and Old Galician-Portuguese soydade, soidade (13^th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin sōlitātem (“solitude”). For the unexpected phonetic development, see the entry for Portuguese saudade.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [sawˈðaðɪ]

Noun

saudade f (plural saudades)

1. wistfulness, nostalgia, longing, the feeling of missing something or someone
   • 1390, J. L. Pensado Tomé (ed.), Os Miragres de Santiago. Madrid: C.S.I.C., page 47:

     Quando aquel Ihesus, meu señor, ya por la terras preegar, eu avia de moy grãde amor et soydade de veer a sua façe et quigi mãdar pintar a semelança do seu rrostro, que era a mays fremosa criatura do mũdo, en hũu pano por fillar cõ ela prazer et cõforto quando o vise; et querendoo fazer cõteyllo todo, et el pediome o pano et posoo ẽna sua cara et doumo encayado cõ tal figura cal era o seu santo rrostro;

     When that Jesus, my Lord, was going about the lands preaching, I had, because of how big was my love, longing for seeing His face; and I wanted to order a paint after His face, which was the most beautiful creation in the world, in a cloth, for having joy and confort whenever I saw it; and wanting to do it I told him, and He asked me for the cloth, put it on His face and gave it back to me stuck with a figure that was no other than His holy face;

   Synonym: señardade

See also

• morriña (“homesickness”)

References

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “soidade”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “soydade”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “saudade”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “saudade”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “soidade”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

---

Portuguese

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese suidade, soidade, soedade, from Latin sōlitātem (“solitude”). The modern saudade may owe its development to one or more of the following factors:

• Analogy with Arabic سَوْدَاء (sawdāʔ, “melancholy”, literally “black bile”)
• Learned hypercorrection; cf. the 'vulgar' coisa alongside the Latinism causa
• Analogy with words such as saudar (“to wish good health”) or the archaic saudade ("salvation" < *salūtātem)

Alternative forms

• saùdade (obsolete)

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /sa.uˈda.d͡ʒi/, /sawˈda.d͡ʒi/ [saʊ̯ˈda.d͡ʒi]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /sa.uˈda.d͡ʒi/, /sawˈda.d͡ʒi/ [saʊ̯ˈda.d͡ʒi]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /sa.uˈda.de/, /sawˈda.de/ [saʊ̯ˈda.de]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /sawˈda.dɨ/ [sawˈða.ðɨ], /ˌsɐwˈda.dɨ/ [ˌsɐwˈða.ðɨ]

• IPA^(key): /saw.ˈda.di/
• IPA^(key): /saw.ˈda.de/
• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ad͡ʒi, (Portugal) -adɨ
• Hyphenation: sau‧da‧de

• Audio (Center-West, BR):

  (file)

Noun

saudade f (plural saudades)

1. wistfulness, nostalgia, longing, the feeling of missing something or someone

   sentir saudade de alguém ― to miss someone

   ter saudades de casa ― to miss home, to feel homesick

   matar saudades ― to catch up

Derived terms

• saudoso
• saudosismo
• saudosista

Descendants

• Kabuverdianu: sodade
• → Esperanto: saŭdado
• → Spanish: saudade

Usage notes

The verb to miss (someone) may be translated as to have (ter), to feel (sentir) or to be with (estar com) saudade. It may be used in the singular or plural indiscriminately.

See also

• Welsh hiraeth
• Appendix:Terms considered difficult or impossible to translate into English

Further reading

• saudade on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

---

Spanish

Etymology

From Portuguese saudade, from Old Galician-Portuguese soydade. Doublet of soledad.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sauˈdade/ [sau̯ˈð̞a.ð̞e]

Noun

saudade f (plural saudades)

1. the feeling of missing something or someone

Further reading

• “saudade”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014