querencia

English

Etymology

From Spanish querencia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛˈɹɛnsɪə/

Noun

querencia (plural querencias)

1. (bullfighting) The area of the bull-ring where the bull makes its stand. [from 1930s]
   • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 332:

     Once hit, a rebel unit must be hit again, and remain hit; the army must penetrate the querencia where – like a fighting bull – it was at home, and stay there, driving it out into unknown and unfriendly territory.

   • 1994, Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing:

     The wolf paced and circled limping on three legs and then crouched by the iron stake where it seemed she’d made her querencia.

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Spanish

Etymology

From querer (“to want”) +‎ -encia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /keˈɾenθja/ [keˈɾẽn̟.θja]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /keˈɾensja/ [keˈɾẽn.sja]

Noun

querencia f (plural querencias)

1. an animal's lair
2. (bullfighting) the bull's querencia
3. the homing instinct of an animal
4. longing, want
5. homesickness, nostalgia

Derived terms

• aquerenciarse

See also

• la cabra siempre tira al monte

Further reading

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