Saudade (English: /saʊˈdɑːdə/; plural saudades) is a word in Portuguese and Galician denoting an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent someone or something. It derives from the Latin word for solitude. It is often associated with a repressed understanding that one might never encounter the object of longing ever again. It is a recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events, often elusive, that cause a sense of separation from the exciting, pleasant, or joyous sensations they once caused. Duarte Nunes Leão defines saudade as “Memory of something with a desire for it”. In Brazil, the day of saudade is officially celebrated on 30 January. It is not a widely acknowledged day in Portugal.
The Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa defines saudade (or saudades) as “A somewhat melancholic feeling of incompleteness. It is related to thinking back on situations of privation due to the absence of someone or something, to move away from a place or thing, or to the absence of a set of particular and desirable experiences and pleasures once lived.”
The dictionary from the Royal Galician Academy, on the other hand, defines saudade as an “intimate feeling and mood caused by the longing for something absent that is being missed. This can take different aspects, from concrete realities (a loved one, a friend, the motherland, the homeland…) to the mysterious and transcendent. It is quite prevalent and characteristic of the Galician-Portuguese world, but it can also be found in other cultures.”
