saudade

Galician

Etymology 1

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

Alternative forms

• soidade

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sawˈdade/ [s̺ɑwˈð̞a.ð̞ɪ]
• Rhymes: -ade
• Hyphenation: sau‧da‧de

Noun

saudade f (plural saudades)

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

   Synonym: señardade

   • 1390, J. L. Pensado Tomé, editor, 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;

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

Etymology 2

Verb

saudade

1. second-person plural imperative of saudar

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• saùdade (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese soydade, from Latin sōlitātem (“solitude”). The modern saudade may owe its irregular 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)

Pronunciation

 

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

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

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

• (Northeast Brazil) IPA^(key): /saw.ˈda.di/, /saw.ˈda.d͡ʒi/

• Audio (Central-West Brazil):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ad͡ʒi, (Portugal) -adɨ
• Hyphenation: sau‧da‧de

Noun

saudade f (plural saudades)

1. wistfulness, melancholy, 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

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.

Derived terms

• saudoso
• saudosismo
• saudosista

Descendants

• Kabuverdianu: sodade
• Kristang: saudadi
• → Esperanto: saŭdado
• → Spanish: saudade
• → English: saudade
• → French: saudade

See also

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

Further reading

• saudade on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Spanish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sauˈdade/ [sau̯ˈð̞a.ð̞e]
• Rhymes: -ade
• Syllabification: sau‧da‧de

Noun

saudade f (plural saudades)

1. the feeling of missing something or someone

Further reading

• “saudade”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28