Source — Wiktionary, "тоска" (Russian, Cyrillic headword)
- Title: тоска
- Publication: English Wiktionary
- URL: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/тоска
- Type: tertiary, neutral.
- Accessed: 2026-09-04
Extract
- Etymology: inherited from Proto-Slavic *tъska, possibly connected to тощий (tóščij, "lean, gaunt") or тискать (tískatʹ, "to squeeze, to press").
- Definitions (three senses given): (1) melancholy/depression — sadness, low mood; (2) boredom/ennui — weariness, lack of interest; (3) longing/yearning — deep desire or emotional yearning for something absent.
- Synonyms listed: уныние (despondency), хандра (colloquial "the blues"/low mood), скука (boredom), печаль (sorrow), тревога (anxiety) — i.e. Russian itself has several partially-overlapping near-synonyms, none identical to тоска's full range.
- Grammatical notes: feminine, uncountable/inanimate, second-syllable stress.
Gaps
- Does not discuss the word's use in specific literary texts (Chekhov, Nabokov) or its popular English-language "untranslatable" reputation — a plain lexicographic entry only.
- Whether the tъska root has descendants in other Slavic languages with divergent senses (the pattern this project documented for litost's *ľutъ root) is not addressed by this entry and is unchecked here.