Hello and welcome to the first episode in a new series called There's a Word for That.
In just a few minutes,
Each episode will uncover a word from somewhere in the world for a feeling you've had.
Many times but never knew had a name.
So without further ado.
.
.
Let's get into it.
There's a word in Russian for an ache that doesn't need a reason.
It isn't sadness or boredom.
And it's not quite the feeling of longing for something.
Is sort of a mismatch of all three.
Yet is bigger than any of them.
Russians call it Tuska Tuska,
Spelled t-o-s-k-a in English the incredible novelist Vladimir Nabokov,
A Russian himself,
Wrote some of his most well-known works in English,
And yet he bemoaned the fact that he could not describe this feeling.
Admitting that the English language had failed him here.
He said no single English word could capture it.
That at its most intense,
Tusker is a kind of spiritual anguish,
Beyond logic or reason,
And often without a specific cause.
At its mildest,
Tusker is just a dull unease,
A sense that something is missing,
Even when nothing is actually wrong.
That's what makes Tusker different to something like sadness or even nostalgia.
We're usually sad about something specific.
Yet Tusker can arrive on a perfectly lovely day for no reason at all.
And Russian literature,
In particular,
Is full of it.
Long winters,
Long train journeys,
Characters staring out of windows,
Gazing at nothing in particular.
Is often considered as a peculiarly Russian condition.
But of course,
The feeling itself isn't Russian at all.
They were just the ones who gave it a name.
And that's why I think language is so wonderful.
It speaks to the humanity in all of us and can unite us with just a single word.
Tusker is one of those words.
Maybe you've felt a version of it yourself.
In fact,
I'm certain you have.
And now,
You finally have a word for it.
Tusker.
Thank you for listening,
And I look forward to seeing you next time.
