nostalgia

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun

A longing for home or familiar surroundings; homesickness.
A bittersweet yearning for the things of the past.

Pronunciation

/nɒˈstæld͡ʒə/ /nɑˈstæld͡ʒə/ /nəˈstæld͡ʒə/ /nɔˈstæld͡ʒə/ /nəˈstæɫd͡ʒə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nostalgia.wav LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-nostalgia.wav

Word forms

nostalgia nostalgias nostalgy

Etymology

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.

Antonyms

nostopathy nostophobia

Related words

nostalgie de la boue solastalgia technostalgia Eastalgia fauxstalgia halcyon days hark back memory lane reminiscence anemoia

Derived words

blinded by nostalgia nostalgia goggles nostalgic nostalgically nostalgise nostalgism nostalgist nostalgize nowstalgia retro-nostalgia Yugo-nostalgia

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

Back to search All on N Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary