nostalgia

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See also: nostalgía

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From New Latin nostalgia, coined from Ancient Greek νόστος (nóstos, returning home) + ἄλγος (álgos, pain), translating German Heimweh.[1] Ancient Greek *νοσταλγία (*nostalgía) is unattested. Transferred sense probably influenced by French nostalgie, especially in literature.[2]

Compare Italian nostalgia, Spanish nostalgia, Portuguese nostalgia and French nostalgie.

Pronunciation

Noun

nostalgia (countable and uncountable, plural nostalgias)

  1. (now uncommon) A longing for home or familiar surroundings; homesickness.
  2. (transferred sense) A bittersweet yearning for the things of the past.
    • 2013 August 16, Oliver Burkeman, “This is the cutest article”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 20:
      I can't have been the only person, last week, to feel a rush of nostalgia upon learning that Thames Water had removed a bus-sized, 15-tonne lump of food fat ("mixed with wet wipes") from the sewers under London. The fatberg was an August news story redolent of the old-fashioned silly season.
    • 2020 September 9, Priya Elan, “Now-stalgia: why fashion is going back to the future”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
      [] Rousteing asked: “Is my generation’s nostalgia for our turn-of-the-century childhood culture somehow less cool than fashion’s more familiar fixation on the 70s and 80s?” The answer was a firm “no”: in 2020 all nostalgia is good nostalgia. “The nostalgia economy”, as named by Quartz, is the most powerful trend in fashion since florals or trousers and is a reaction to what’s happening in the world.
    • 2022 November 15, Dan Hancox, “‘Who remembers proper binmen?’ The nostalgia memes that help explain Britain today”, in The Guardian:
      Though there is nothing generationally unique in the desire to bask in the banalities of your past, these nostalgia communities have flourished on Facebook as its user base has grown ever older in the past decade.
    • 2024 May 21, Matthew Reisz, “Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion by Agnes Arnold-Foster review – the past isn’t a foreign place”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
      Yet it continued to be treated as rather suspect. In the mid-20th century, a psychoanalyst called Nandor Fodor dismissed nostalgia, along with utopian politics and even the vogue for Tarzan films, as “the manifestation of a latent desire to return to the womb”.

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

References

  1. ^ Johannes Hofer (1688) Dissertatio medica de nostalgia, oder Heimwehe (in Latin), Basel: Johann Jakob Harder, →DOI:Neque verò denomine deliberanti convenientuis occurrit, remque explicandam præciſius deſignans, quam Noſtalgias vocabulum, origine græcum, & quidem duabus ex vocibus compoſitum, quorum alterum Νόστος Reditum in Patriam, alterum Ἄλγος dolorem aut triſtitiam ſignificat: []
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “nostalgia”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

Finnish

Etymology

From New Latin nostalgia, coined from Ancient Greek νόστος (nóstos, returning home) + ἄλγος (álgos, pain).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈnostɑlɡiɑ/,
  • Rhymes: -iɑ
  • Hyphenation(key): nos‧tal‧gia

Noun

nostalgia

  1. nostalgia

Declension

Inflection of nostalgia (Kotus type 12/kulkija, no gradation)
nominative nostalgia nostalgiat
genitive nostalgian nostalgioiden
nostalgioitten
partitive nostalgiaa nostalgioita
illative nostalgiaan nostalgioihin
singular plural
nominative nostalgia nostalgiat
accusative nom. nostalgia nostalgiat
gen. nostalgian
genitive nostalgian nostalgioiden
nostalgioitten
nostalgiain rare
partitive nostalgiaa nostalgioita
inessive nostalgiassa nostalgioissa
elative nostalgiasta nostalgioista
illative nostalgiaan nostalgioihin
adessive nostalgialla nostalgioilla
ablative nostalgialta nostalgioilta
allative nostalgialle nostalgioille
essive nostalgiana nostalgioina
translative nostalgiaksi nostalgioiksi
abessive nostalgiatta nostalgioitta
instructive nostalgioin
comitative See the possessive forms below.
Possessive forms of nostalgia (Kotus type 12/kulkija, no gradation)

Further reading

Indonesian

Indonesian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia id

Etymology

From English nostalgia.

Noun

nostalgia (plural nostalgia-nostalgia)

  1. nostalgia

Further reading

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin nostalgia, coined from Ancient Greek νόστος (nóstos, returning home) + ἄλγος (álgos, pain).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /no.stalˈd͡ʒi.a/
  • Rhymes: -ia
  • Hyphenation: no‧stal‧gì‧a

Noun

nostalgia f (plural nostalgie)

  1. nostalgia, homesickness, longing

Anagrams

Malay

Malay Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ms

Etymology

From English nostalgia.

Noun

nostalgia (Jawi spelling نوستلݢيا, plural nostalgia-nostalgia, informal 1st possessive nostalgiaku, 2nd possessive nostalgiamu, 3rd possessive nostalgianya)

  1. nostalgia

Further reading

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology

Borrowed from French nostalgie, from New Latin nostalgia, from Ancient Greek νόστος (nóstos) + ἄλγος (álgos).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /nɔsˈtal.ɡja/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -alɡja
  • Syllabification: nos‧tal‧gia

Noun

nostalgia f

  1. nostalgia (yearning for the past)

Declension

Derived terms

(adjective):
(nouns):
(adverb):

Further reading

  • nostalgia in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • nostalgia in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

From New Latin nostalgia, coined from Ancient Greek νόστος (nóstos, returning home) + ἄλγος (álgos, pain).

Cognate with Galician nostalxia.

Pronunciation

 

  • Hyphenation: nos‧tal‧gi‧a

Noun

nostalgia f (plural nostalgias)

  1. nostalgia (yearning for the past)

Spanish

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia es

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin nostalgia, coined from Ancient Greek νόστος (nóstos, returning home) + ἄλγος (álgos, pain).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /nosˈtalxja/
  • Rhymes: -alxja
  • Syllabification: nos‧tal‧gia

Noun

nostalgia f (plural nostalgias)

  1. nostalgia
    Synonym: añoranza

Further reading