# sevdalinka

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. A traditional genre of folk music from Bosnia and Herzegovina, also popular in the ex-Yugoslavia region.
2. A piece composed in this style.

## Etymology
Borrowed from Serbo-Croatian sevdalinka, a compound of Ottoman Turkish سودالی (sevdalı, “lover”) + -inka, the first element deriving from Arabic سَوْدَاء (sawdāʔ, “black [bile]; melancholy”) + Ottoman Turkish ـلی (-lı).

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/sevdalinka