Gloss · Words · Saudade vs nostalgia
Saudade vs nostalgia
Nostalgia looks back at a time. Saudade misses a person or a place, and knows it may not come back.
The difference
Nostalgia is the warm version. It is about a time, usually a happier one, and it comes with a little pleasure: the song from that summer, the smell of the school corridor. You can feel it for a place you can still visit. Saudade is heavier and more particular. It is for someone or something that is gone, with the knowledge that it may never return, and the odd part is that you keep it anyway, almost fondly. Portuguese has it as an everyday word; English borrowed it because it had nothing closer.
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.
Nostalgia
A warm, slightly sad longing for the past.
The smell of chalk brought a rush of nostalgia.
Which one to use
If you miss the eighties, that is nostalgia. If you miss a person who moved away and left a hole the shape of them, that is saudade.
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