sevdah

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish سودا (sevda) (compare Turkish sevda (love)), from Arabic سَوْدَاء (sawdāʔ, black [bile]), translation of the Greek μέλαινα χολή (mélaina kholḗ) from which the term melancholy is derived.

Akin to sevdàlīnka, sevdàlija, sevdàluk, sèvdi, sèvdisati.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sěʋdaːx/
  • Hyphenation: sev‧dah

Noun

sèvdāh m inan (Cyrillic spelling сѐвда̄х)

  1. (regional) love, lovesickness
  2. (regional) yearning for love

Declension

Declension of sevdah
singular plural
nominative sevdah sevdasi
genitive sevdáha sevdaha
dative sevdahu sevdasima
accusative sevdah sevdahe
vocative sevdaše sevdasi
locative sevdahu sevdasima
instrumental sevdahom sevdasima

Synonyms

References

  • sevdah”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025
  • Škaljić, Abdulah (1966) Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku, Sarajevo: Svjetlost, page 561