querencia

Noun

querencia (plural querencias)

1. The area of the bull-ring where the bull makes its stand.
   • 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.1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962, New York: Review Books, published 10 October 2006, →ISBN, page 332
   • The wolf paced and circled limping on three legs and then crouched by the iron stake where it seemed she’d made her querencia.1994 June 7, Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing (Border Trilogy), Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 114
2. (New Mexico) homesickness, nostalgia
   • “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.”2022 May 5, Simon Romero, “‘Burning Down a Way of Life’: Wildfire Rips Through a Hispanic Bastion”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2024