Nostalgia is the sweet ache of missing times that are gone. A wave of nostalgia.
It smooths the past, keeping the light and dropping almost everything else. Nostalgia was once diagnosed as an illness in soldiers far from home, and treated as one.
1nounnostalgiaThe sweet ache of missing times that are gone.
“The nostalgia hit hardest in a supermarket over a biscuit.”
nostalgia is a feeling.
NOSTalgia → aching for what is LOST
The ache for a time that is lost and will not come back.
hooks ontolost
Built in 1688 by a Swiss doctor, Johannes Hofer, out of Greek nóstos, returning home, and álgos, pain. He meant it as a medical diagnosis: homesickness severe enough to make soldiers ill.
Proto-Indo-European
*nes-
New Latin
nostalgia
English, today
nostalgia
Built from
Borrowed from New Latin nostalgia, from grc + νόστος. From New Latin nostalgia, coined by Johannes Hofer in 1688 from Ancient Greek νόστος (“returning home”) + ἄλγος (“pain”), calquing German Heimweh. Ancient Greek is unattested. Transferred sense probably influenced by French nostalgie, especially in literature. Compare Italian nostalgia, Spanish nostalgia, Portuguese nostalgia and French nostalgie.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA