Other forms: longings
Longing is a deep aching wish for something or someone far away. A longing for home, look with longing, longing to return.
It differs from wanting in being about distance — you long for what you cannot reach, and the ache is part of the meaning. German has Sehnsucht and Portuguese saudade for related feelings, both famously hard to translate. Note long as a verb, to long for.
1nounlongingA deep aching wish for something far away.
“Living abroad, she felt a deep longing for her mother's cooking and her old home.”
longing is a feeling.
Also accepted in games: yearning
Old English langian means to yearn, related to long, the adjective — the feeling of time stretching out.
Proto-Germanic
*langōndz
Old English
langiende
Middle English
longynge
English, today
longing
From Middle English longynge, langynge, langand, from Old English langiende, from Proto-Germanic langōndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic langōną (“to desire, long for”), equivalent to long + -ing.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA