duende

noun

du·en·de dü-ˈen-(ˌ)dā

: the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm

Did you know?

The word duende refers to a spirit in Spanish, Portuguese, and Filipino folklore and literally means "ghost" or "goblin" in Spanish. It is believed to derive from the phrase dueño de casa, which means "owner of a house." The term is traditionally used in flamenco music or other art forms to refer to the mystical or powerful force given off by a performer to draw in the audience. The Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca wrote in his essay "Teoria y Juego del Duende" ("Play and Theory of the Duende") that duende "is a power and not a behavior … a struggle and not a concept." Nowadays the term appears in a broader range of contexts to refer to one's unspoken charm or allure.

Examples of duende in a Sentence

even as a child, she had an unmistakable duende that attracted the attention of passersby

Recent Examples on the Web

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The duende is a force not a labor, a struggle not a thought. —Lauren Groff, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2024 Bad Bunny isn’t interested in ‘clarifying anything’ to fans Sept. 12, 2023 My own mom and sister, two people who are of sound and rational mind, used to be genuinely concerned that duendes were stealing our laundry. —Alex Zaragoza, Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2023