In last night’s class, we discussed how some languages have words that can more fully express what we mean. Dr. Mason was searching for a word that meant homesickness for a home that never existed. I remembered seeing this word on Word Porn’s facebook page. It took me some time, but I tracked down the word: Hiraeth.
Hiraeth. (n). A homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief, for the lost places of your past.
Great word, right?
I thought I’d provide a link to other words available in other languages that we do not have in English: http://www.highexistence.com/theres-a-word-for-that-25-expressions-you-should-have-in-your-vocabulary/
There are other lists like this out there, of course. But this was the one I found Hiraeth on. Some of my favorites include: mamihlapinatapai, fernweh, and nefelibata.
I love this list – thanks for sharing. I think I’ll try to incorporate “sillage” into my life.
The English language’s vocabulary limits what emotions we express. This is frightening, because I believe the less we express an emotion, the less aware of that emotion we become. If this is true, language is both giving us the power to become ourselves by increasing our self-awareness, and stunting us because we won’t fully experience all the unnamed emotions.
There is a word in Portuguese that is a lot like ‘hiraeth’. Saudade is a deep nostalgic, melancholic longing for someone/something/somewhere that you love. If you feel saudade you also feel, quietly, that you might never see that person place or thing again. It’s an especially potent feeling for immigrants, mourners, and lovers.