Cad é 'grief' as Gaeilge?
What is 'grief' in Irish?
If you look up the word ‘grief’ in the English to Irish dictionary you are given your choice of three words.
Brón, which typically means sadness.
Cumha, which commonly means homesickness, but in this case refers to the longing for something one can no longer have.
And finally, briseadh croí which means heartbreak.
There is no one word that succinctly captures grief in the Irish language, but how could one word in any language capture all that grief entails?
At times, I find myself enchanted by the way that the Irish language has one simple word to express monumental concepts, such as the word aduantas which refers to the feeling of unease and anxiety that one may feel when in unfamiliar surroundings.
But in this case, I understand. How can one word hold the whole weight of all that grief is when it can be often for us to feel that even we can hold that weight?
Beyond that, we are not bound to one word to define our own individual experiences. Maybe somedays we feel briseadh croí - heartbreak, and others, we long to connect with those we lost forever and feel cumha - a sad longing to be with them. All the while, alongside every other emotion, there is brón, sadness. But we also may feel lúcháir - joy because of the memories we hold, or the life we are able to keep living. We may find ourselves buíoch - thankful for those who support us during our healing. And of course, we wouldn’t feel any of those other emotions if not for grá - love.
Grief is not one emotion so it feels fitting that there is no one word to contain it in the Irish language.
To hear any of these words pronounced, copy and paste them here. You may also select the different dialects on the map to hear how pronunciation varies.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh - thank you all so much for your patience and support during a difficult time. ❤️🩹 I am so looking forward to sharing with you all again. Next week we will be back to two posts a week in English and Irish. I will also be catching up on comments and replies to messages over the next few days.
Very beautiful. Thank you. I wish you much good fortune to come.
I’m sorry things have been difficult for you lately, and I hope that difficulty is now past! With my limited Gaeilge the only word I could think of was brón, so thank you for listing the other terms!