Saudade

What the word means

Saudade is a feminine noun in Portuguese. [1] [2]

The Priberam dictionary gives two human senses before it lists plant names. Sense 1: «Lembrança grata de pessoa ausente, de um momento passado, ou de alguma coisa de que alguém se vê privado.» Unofficial English translation: "A grateful memory of an absent person, of a past moment, or of something a person no longer has." [1]

Sense 2: «Pesar, mágoa que essa privação causa.» Unofficial English translation: "The sorrow and pain that this lack causes." [1]

Infopédia, the Porto Editora Portuguese dictionary, describes sense 1, unofficial English translation: a feeling of sorrow, nostalgia and incompleteness, caused by the absence, disappearance, distance or lack of people, times, places or things to which a person was happily tied, and which the person would like to have present again. [2]

Infopédia also lists an affectionate memory of someone or something that is absent. In the plural, saudades can mean greetings sent to a person who is not there. Priberam lists the same plural uses, including «mande-lhe saudades minhas» (unofficial English translation: "send my saudades to that person"). Both dictionaries also record a plant name, more common in the plural. [1] [2]

In the dictionaries, saudade is not only sadness. It is a memory that still feels close, and the sorrow that this lack causes.

How English pages gloss it

The Cambridge Portuguese–English dictionary glosses saudade as "longing for, yearning for, missing". It defines the noun as a feeling caused by the lack of someone or something. [3]

Cambridge records two verb phrases. Estar com saudades is "to be longing for" someone or something. Ter saudades dos pais is "to be missing one’s parents". [3]

Those pages do not say English has no words for the feeling. They give several glosses. They also keep the Portuguese noun, because the two human senses share one word. [1] [2] [3]

Sound and origin

Priberam marks two pronunciations for written au: one as a single glide, and one as two vowels. [1]

Infopédia prints two phonetic forms: sɐwˈdad(ə) and sɐuˈdad(ə). [2]

Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa, a language desk at ISCTE in Lisbon, says the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon dictionary treats the sequence as a diphthong. It says the Houaiss dictionary also records a diphthong and adds a two-syllable form. Ciberdúvidas states that saudade comes from Latin solĭtas, -ātis, and that the word later came under the influence of Portuguese saúde (health). [4]

Priberam gives the origin as Latin solitas, -atis, "solidão" (solitude). Infopédia gives Latin solitāte, "solidão". [1] [2]

Where learners meet the word

Priberam’s entry for fado describes fado as a popular Portuguese song, usually sung by one singer with a Portuguese guitar and a classical guitar. It says fado arose in popular Lisbon in the nineteenth century and later spread, and that it is often slow and sad when it speaks of love or saudade. The same entry states that UNESCO listed fado as intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2011. [5]

UNESCO’s own page describes fado as music and poetry widely practised by communities in Lisbon. That UNESCO text does not use the word saudade. [6]

Learners also meet saudade in the Cambridge phrases, and in the plural greeting saudades. [1] [2] [3]

Myth or meaning?

Some claims go beyond the dictionary entries. Flip a card to see what the cited sources say.

Front (popular claim)	Back (what the sources say)	Source
"Saudade has no English words near it."	Cambridge glosses it as longing, yearning or missing.	Cambridge [3]
"Saudade is only sadness."	Priberam’s sense 1 is a grateful memory. Sense 2 is the pain of the lack.	Priberam [1]
"Saudade is only a feeling."	Priberam and Infopédia also list a plant name.	Priberam; Infopédia [1] [2]
"Fado is another word for saudade."	Priberam says fado often speaks of love or saudade. UNESCO describes fado as Lisbon song and poetry and does not use saudade.	Priberam; UNESCO [5] [6]