nostalgia, homesickness

nostalgia, homesickness
Nostalgia comes from a Greek word meaning "return home," but its meaning has been extended to indicate a desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life. Homesickness (home plus sick) is illness, depression, or sadness caused by a longing for home; it is both more specific and more restricted in meaning than nostalgia."Several young soldiers in this company are suffering from homesickness." "Thoughts of his childhood home and happy youth caused a wave of nostalgia to sweep over the weary old man." The adjectives nostalgic and homesick convey the same primary meanings as the nouns from which they are formed: "This young traveler was often homesick and lonely." "That autobiography is a nostalgic account of the author's first thirty years."

Dictionary of problem words and expressions. . 1975.

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  • homesickness — See nostalgia. See nostalgia, homesickness …   Dictionary of problem words and expressions

  • nostalgia — See nostalgia, homesickness …   Dictionary of problem words and expressions

  • Homesickness — (or in some cases, Nostalgia), is the distress or impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from the specific home environment or attachment objects. Feelings of longing are often accompanied by anxiety and depression. These… …   Wikipedia

  • nostalgia — os*tal gi*a, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ? a return home + ? pain.] 1. (Med.) Homesickness; esp., a severe and sometimes fatal form of melancholia, due to homesickness. [1913 Webster] 2. A sentimental yearning to return to an earlier time remembered as… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • nostalgia — [nä stal′jə, nôstal′jə] n. [ModL: coined (1688) as a medical term by J. Hofer, Swiss scholar, to transl. Ger heimweh, homesickness < Gr nostos, a return (akin to neomai, I return: see NESTOR) + ALGIA] 1. a longing to go back to one s home,… …   English World dictionary

  • nostalgia — (n.) 1770, severe homesickness (considered as a disease), Modern Latin (Cf. Fr. nostalgie, 1802), coined 1668 by Johannes Hofer, as a rendering of Ger. heimweh, from Gk. algos pain, grief, distress (see ALGIA (Cf. algia)) + nostos homecoming,… …   Etymology dictionary

  • nostalgia — [n] pleasant remembrances fond memories*, hearts and flowers*, homesickness, longing, pining, reminiscence, remorse, schmaltz*, sentimentality, tear jerker*, wistfulness, yearning; concepts 20,410 …   New thesaurus

  • nostalgia — ► NOUN ▪ sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past. DERIVATIVES nostalgic adjective nostalgically adverb. ORIGIN originally in the sense «acute homesickness»: from Latin, from Greek nostos return home + algos pain …   English terms dictionary

  • Nostalgia — For other uses, see Nostalgia (disambiguation). For the use of the term Nostalgia on Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Nostalgia. The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.[1] The word is a learned formation of a Greek… …   Wikipedia

  • nostalgia — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) n. homesickness; pathos, regret, wistfulness; nostomania. II (Roget s IV) n. Syn. remorse, wistfulness, sentimentality; see homesickness , loneliness . III (Roget s 3 Superthesaurus) (VOCABULARY WORD) a …   English dictionary for students

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