Yerma

Part of speech: noun, proper noun

Definitions

1. A character from Spanish literature known for her grief over childlessness and struggles against societal expectations
2. A protagonist in a play who embodies the theme of longing and the conflict between personal desires and social norms
3. A representation of despair and the consequences of unfulfilled motherhood in a dramatic narrative

Etymology: Lorca's 1934 tragedy "Yerma" takes its title from a Spanish word meaning "barren" or "sterile," and the play's protagonist is named for the condition she cannot escape. The Spanish adjective comes from Latin "sterilis," but here it has been narrowed into a personal name, so that a woman's infertility becomes her identity in the way "Yerma" is spoken on stage. Federico García Lorca wrote the play in 1934 as the second part of what he called his rural trilogy, following "Blood Wedding" and preceding "The House of Bernarda Alba." The title character, a married woman desperate for a child whose husband does not share her longing, has become one of the most performed figures in Spanish-language theatre, and the word is now used in Spanish and English criticism to name a particular kind of tragic frustration.