Saudade.

European Portuguese: [sɐwˈðaðɨ], 
Brazilian Portuguese: [sawˈdadi] or [sawˈdadʒi], 
Galician: [sawˈðaðe]; 

plural saudades

Saudade is a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return.

One English translation of the word is missingness, although it might not convey the feeling of deep emotion attached to the word “saudade”. Stronger forms of saudade might be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost lover, or a family member who has gone missing, moved away, separated, or died.

Saudade was once described as “the love that remains” after someone is gone. Saudade is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, well-being, which now triggers the senses and makes one live again. It can be described as an emptiness, like someone (e.g., one’s children, parents, sibling, grandparents, friends, pets) or something (e.g., places, things one used to do in childhood, or other activities performed in the past) that should be there in a particular moment is missing, and the individual feels this absence. It brings sad and happy feelings altogether, sadness for missing and happiness for having experienced the feeling.

Nascimento and Meandro (2005) cite Duarte Nunes Leão’s definition of saudade: “Memory of something with a desire for it.”

In Brazil, the day of Saudade is officially celebrated on 30 January.