querencia

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Spanish querencia.

Pronunciation

• (US, UK) IPA^(key): /kɛˈɹɛnsɪə/
• Hyphenation: que‧ren‧sia

Noun

querencia (plural querencias)

1. (bullfighting) The area of the bull-ring where the bull makes its stand. [from 1930s]
   • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962, New York: Review Books, published 2006 October 10, →ISBN, page 332:

     Once hit, a rebel unit must be hit again, and remain hit; the army must penetrate the querencia where – like a fighting bull – it was at home, and stay there, driving it out into unknown and unfriendly territory.

   • 1994 June 7, Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing (Border Trilogy), Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 114:

     The wolf paced and circled limping on three legs and then crouched by the iron stake where it seemed she’d made her querencia.

2. (New Mexico) homesickness, nostalgia
   • 2022 May 5, Simon Romero, “‘Burning Down a Way of Life’: Wildfire Rips Through a Hispanic Bastion”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 2024-06-16:

     “We’ve lived there so long because of our querencia,” said Ms. Garcia, a term she defined as “a cultural longing, a pull, that keeps us there.”

Further reading

• “querencia”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Spanish

Etymology

From querer (“to want”) +‎ -encia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /keˈɾenθja/ [keˈɾẽn̟.θja]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /keˈɾensja/ [keˈɾẽn.sja]
• Rhymes: -enθja
• Rhymes: -ensja
• Syllabification: que‧ren‧cia

Noun

querencia f (plural querencias)

1. longing, want

   Synonym: anhelo

2. homesickness, nostalgia

   Synonyms: añoranza, morriña, nostalgia

3. the homing instinct of an animal
4. (bullfighting) the bull's querencia
5. an animal's lair

   Synonyms: guarida, madriguera

Derived terms

• aquerenciarse

 

See also

• la cabra siempre tira al monte

 

Further reading

• “querencia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 23rd edition, Royal Spanish Academy, 2014 October 16