Hiraeth

() is a Welsh word that has no direct English translation. The University of Wales, Lampeter, likens it to a homesickness tinged with grief and sadness over the lost or departed, especially in the context of Wales and Welsh culture. It is a mixture of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness or an earnest desire for the Wales of the past.

The Cornish and Breton equivalents are and . It is associated with the German concept of , the Galician-Portuguese or the Romanian .

Etymology

Derived from 'long' and (a nominal suffix creating an abstract noun from an adjective), the word is literally equivalent to English 'longing'. A less likely, but possible, etymology is 'long' + 'pain, grief, sorrow, longing'. In the earliest citations in early Welsh poetry it implies 'grief or longing after the loss or death of someone'.University of Wales Dictionary, s.v. 'hiraeth'

Culture

19th-century attempts to spread the English language through its exclusive use in schools at the expense of the Welsh language, following the 1847 Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales (commonly known as the "Treachery of the Blue Books" in Wales), led to an increase in . Between 1870 and 1914, approximately 40% of Welsh emigrants returned to Wales, a much higher percentage than the rest of Britain, and it has been claimed that this was due to .

References

Sources

*Williams, Robert (1865), “hiraeth”, in Lexicon Cornu-Britannicum: A Dictionary of the Ancient Celtic Language of Cornwall, in which the Words are elucidated by Copious Examples from the Cornish Works now remaining; With Translations in English, London: Trubner & Co.
p. 217

External links

Hiraeth Smith College: Kahn Liberal Arts Institute

BBC Wales - Arts - Hiraeth

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Welsh words and phrases
Welsh culture
Nostalgia
Cornish culture
Words and phrases with no direct English translation