nostalgia

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A bittersweet longing for happy times in the past.

   Old photographs filled her with nostalgia for her school years.

2. 2
   noun

   A longing for home or familiar surroundings; homesickness.

   The smell of his mother's cooking sent a wave of nostalgia through him.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Nostalgia was coined in the 18th century from Greek nostos, “return home,” and algos, “pain,” as a translation of German Heimweh, “homesickness.” In English it first meant acute homesickness; the modern sense of longing for the past became established by the early 20th century.

From New Latin nostalgia, coined by Johannes Hofer in 1688 from Ancient Greek νόστος (nóstos, “returning home”) + ἄλγος (álgos, “pain”), calquing German Heimweh. Ancient Greek *νοσταλγία (*nostalgía) is unattested. Transferred sense probably influenced by French nostalgie, especially in literature. Compare Italian nostalgia, Spanish nostalgia, Portuguese nostalgia and French nostalgie.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary