Margen
«Duende» began as a contraction of «duen de casa» — 'owner of the house': the mischievous spirit that dwelt in homes and was best kept happy. Over the centuries, the little household ghost shrank, put on a pointed cap and moved into the world of fairy tales.
But in Andalusia the word took another path. «Duende» came to name that inexplicable something a flamenco singer or dancer has when technique stops being technique and becomes a shiver down the spine. García Lorca devoted an entire lecture to it in 1933, convinced it could never be explained — only recognised.
Today «duende» sits on every list of untranslatable words: English borrows it as it is whenever flamenco comes up, because «charm» and «soul» fall short.
Not bad for a house ghost: it started out hiding behind the furniture and ended up as an ambassador for the language.