Gloss · Words · Hiraeth vs saudade
Hiraeth vs saudade
Both are a longing for what is gone. Hiraeth is for a home; saudade is for anyone or anything you loved.
The difference
Hiraeth is Welsh, and it is about home: a place, a Wales that may never quite have existed, the house you grew up in before it was sold. It has a note of grief for a thing that cannot be returned to because it is no longer there, or never was. Saudade is Portuguese and wider. It can be for a person, a time, a place, a version of yourself. It is a longing you keep, with a sweetness in it, rather than a wound.
Hiraeth
A deep longing for a home you cannot go back to, or that never quite existed.
Every winter brought a wave of hiraeth for the valley.
Saudade
A deep, tender longing for something or someone that is gone and may not come back.
Every photo from that summer fills her with saudade.
Which one to use
Use hiraeth when the missing thing is home. Use saudade when it is a person, or when you cannot quite say what it is.
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