nostalgia

Definitions

Greek nóstos (homecoming) + álgos (pain) + -ia (condition) = literally 'home-pain.' Coined in 1688 as a medical name for severe homesickness; the disease sense faded, leaving the warm, aching longing for the past we mean today.

Why It Means This

nostalgia is the root's great escape from the clinic. A Swiss physician built it in 1688 from nóstos ('homecoming') and álgos ('pain') to label a real, sometimes deadly illness: the homesickness that wasted away soldiers stationed far from home. As the centuries passed, the medical diagnosis dissolved into an everyday emotion — the sweet, slightly painful pull toward the past. The 'pain' half is still doing quiet work: nostalgia is never purely happy.

Common Collocations

• 1.a sense of nostalgia一种怀旧感
• 2.feel nostalgia for怀念……
• 3.nostalgia for the past对往昔的眷恋
• 4.wave of nostalgia一阵怀旧之情

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Old photos filled her with nostalgia for her school days.

• 2.

  The song stirs a wave of nostalgia in everyone who hears it.

• 3.

  There is a growing nostalgia for the simpler life of the past.