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1word1day2010-10-23 09:12 pm
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Toska
Continuing the untranslatable theme...
Toska noun /ˈtō-skə/
Russian word roughly translated as sadness, melancholia, lugubriousness.
Best described by Vladimir Nabokov:
“No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
Toska noun /ˈtō-skə/
Russian word roughly translated as sadness, melancholia, lugubriousness.
Best described by Vladimir Nabokov:
“No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”