Hiraeth (Welsh pronunciation:[hɪraɨ̯θ,hiːrai̯θ][1]) is aWelsh word that has no direct English translation. TheUniversity of Wales, Lampeter, likens it to ahomesickness tinged with grief and sadness over the lost or departed, especially in the context of Wales and Welsh culture.[2] It is a mixture of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness or an earnest desire for the Wales of the past.[3]
TheCornish andBreton equivalents arehireth[4] andhiraezh. It is associated with the Amharic-Ethiopian concept oftizita, the German concept ofSehnsucht, theGalician-Portuguesesaudade or the Romaniandor.[5] A similarScottish Gaelic term,cianalas, also refers to a type of longing or homesickness, often used in relation to theOuter Hebrides.
Derived fromhir 'long' and-aeth (a nominal suffix creating an abstract noun from an adjective), the word is literally equivalent to English 'longing'. A less likely, but possible, etymology ishir 'long' +aeth 'pain, grief, sorrow, longing'. In the earliest citations in earlyWelsh poetry it implies 'grief or longing after the loss or death of someone'.[6]
Nineteenth-century attempts to spread the English language through its exclusive use in schools at the expense of theWelsh 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 inhiraeth.[5] Between 1870 and 1914, approximately 40% ofWelsh emigrants returned to Wales, a much higher percentage than the rest of Britain, and it has been claimed that this was due tohiraeth.[5]
