saudade

Forms

saudade f (plural saudades)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote soydade, soidade and suidade, later also soedade.^[2][3][4] Saudade appears in the 15th century.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary lists sodade, saùdade and saüdade as alternative forms.^[1] Houaiss gives the pronunciation with /au/ either as a diphthong or as two syllables.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sōlitās (“solitude, loneliness”), written Old Galician-Portuguese soydade, Old Galician-Portuguese soidade and Old Galician-Portuguese suidade in the medieval texts.^[2][3][5][6] The Latin word, formed from sōlus (“alone”), lived on only in the Ibero-Romance languages, as Spanish soledad beside the Portuguese word.^[2][7][8] Morais in 1789 explained the word from soledade, altered to Old Galician-Portuguese soedade and then to the medieval forms above and to the modern one.^[9]

The vowel of the first syllable is explained by the influence of saúde (“health”) according to Nascentes's short dictionary and Aurélio, of saudar (“to greet”) according to Nascentes's larger one, with references to Diez, Meyer-Lübke and others.^[5][10][6] Wiktionary names a medieval noun Old Galician-Portuguese saudade (“salvation”), from Vulgar Latin *salūtās, as a possible influence.^[1] Houaiss also notes the form sodade, with the diphthong reduced to /o/, and a form with /oi/.^[2]

De Vaan finds no convincing origin for the Latin adjective: he rejects the old link with the reflexive pronoun, and Wiktionary mentions his alternative, a root Proto-Indo-European *solh₂- (“whole”).^[11][1]

Galician has soidade and saudade.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is found in the cantigas of the 13th century as soidade “grief at a loss, longing”: in a cantiga of Lopo Liaz a lady has soidade because she has lost a minstrel, and Nun'Eanes Cerzeo says averei soidade “I shall feel longing”.^[4][14] A cantiga d'amigo has ala vai, madre, o[n]d' ei suidade “there he goes, mother, where my longing lies”.^[14] The Crónica Troiana says moy gran soydade “very great sorrow” of a dead brother, and the Miragres de Santiago have soydade de veer a sua façe “longing to see his face”.^[15]

Semantic evolution

From “loneliness, being forsaken” the word passed to the feeling of one who is alone and far from what he loves, his homeland and family.^[6] Cardoso (1569) and Barbosa (1611) render it with Latin desiderium “longing for the absent”, and Barbosa already has ter saudade.^[16][17] Folqman (1755) has morrer de saudades “to pine for someone”.^[18]

Morais (1789) defines it as the sorrow that the absence of a loved thing causes, with the wish to see it again, and records dar saudades “to send one's regards” and the name of a red flower speckled with white.^[9] The plant name is today a common name of several plants, especially the scabious, and in Rio de Janeiro of a bird.^[2][19] In Brazil the word also names a song sung by sailors at sea.^[2]

The word was borrowed into English, French, Italian, Spanish and Esperanto, and into the creoles as Kabuverdianu sodade and Kristang saudadi.^[1] Corominas notes that Spanish soledad took the sense “longing” in the second half of the 16th century, and that saudade itself has been used in Spanish.^[20]

Timeline

• 1200s – soidade and soydade in the cantigas.^[2][4]
• 1400s – first records of the spelling saudade and of soedade.^[2][21]
• 1400s – the adjective soydoso, later saudoso.^[22]
• c. 1525 – suidade in the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana.^[23]
• 1530 – saudade in a private letter.^[24]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders saudade with Latin desiderium.^[16]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau reports Faria e Sousa's view that saudade is a corruption of soidade.^[25]
• 1789 – Morais records dar saudades and the flower.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A melancholy, nostalgic longing for someone or something absent, lost or past, with the wish to have it again; nostalgia: Tenho saudade dos verões na praia.^[2][10][1]
2. Grief at the absence or death of someone dear.^[10][26]
3. (in the plural, informal) Affectionate greetings to someone absent: Manda saudades à tua mãe.^[2][19]
4. (Brazil, music) A song sung by sailors at sea.^[2]
5. (botany) A common name of several plants, especially the scabious Scabiosa atropurpurea.^[2][10][19]
6. (Rio de Janeiro) A bird of the cotinga family, Tijuca atra.^[2][19]

Word family

• saudoso
• saudosismo

Related words

• soledade
• solidão
• só
• Latin sōlitās
• Spanish soledad
• Galician soidade

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include morrer de saudade(s) “to miss terribly” and, in informal Brazilian Portuguese, deixar na saudade “to leave far behind, outdo”.^[2]

Bluteau reports the view of Manuel de Faria e Sousa, in his commentary on the Lusíadas, that saudade is only a corruption of soidade, and that the common people of Portugal still kept soidão and soidade.^[25]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. saudade
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. saudade
4. ^ a b c d Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. soidade
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. saudade
6. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 460
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. solitas
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 379
10. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. saudade
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. soidade
13. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. saudade
14. ^ a b Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. soidade
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. soydade
16. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. saudade
17. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. saudade
18. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. saudade
19. ^ a b c d Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. saudade
20. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. solo
21. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. soedade
22. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. saudoso
23. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. suidade
24. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. saudade
25. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. saudade
26. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. saudade