First Known Use: 1756
Dictionary
nostalgia
noun nos·tal·gia \nä-ˈstal-jə, nə- also nȯ-, nō-; nə-ˈstäl-\
: pleasure and sadness that is caused by remembering something from the past and wishing that you could experience it again
Full Definition of NOSTALGIA
1
: the state of being homesick : homesickness
2
: a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition; also : something that evokes nostalgia
— nos·tal·gic \-jik\ adjective or noun
— nos·tal·gi·cal·ly \-ji-k(ə-)lē\ adverb
— nos·tal·gist \-jist\ noun
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Examples of NOSTALGIA
- To dwell even fitfully on the past, for James, was to risk crippling nostalgia; the past was the shadow side of will and therefore must be rejected. —Jackson Lears, Nation, 26 Feb. 2007
- My own feelings were that since I'd jettisoned employment, marriage, nostalgia and swampy regret, I was now rightfully a man aquiver with possibility and purpose … —Richard Ford, Independence Day, 1995
- … the script is written in advance, around the uplifting themes of our civic religion: reconciliation, patriotism, self-sacrifice, the bond of leader and little guy, nostalgia for what is inevitably called “a simpler time.” —Katha Pollitt, Nation, 22 May 1995
- Nevertheless, if one understands the nostalgia for war which marked these years of his break with America, it still remains a nostalgia that is empyreal and histrionic. Only once in his career did MacArthur lead as small a body of men as a company—one somehow feels that the idea of MacArthur, even as a boy, in command of anything less than a division verges on the ludicrous … —William Styron, “MacArthur,” 8 Oct. 1964, in William Styron, This Quiet Dust and Other Writings, 1982
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Origin of NOSTALGIA
New Latin, from Greek nostos return home + New Latin -algia; akin to Greek neisthai to return, Old English genesan to survive, Sanskrit nasate he approaches
Rhymes with NOSTALGIA
NOSTALGIC Defined for Kids
nostalgia
noun nos·tal·gia \nä-ˈstal-jə\
Definition of NOSTALGIA for Kids
: a longing for something past
Medical Dictionary
nostalgia
noun nos·tal·gia \nä-ˈstal-jə, nə-, nȯ-; nə-ˈstäl-\
Medical Definition of NOSTALGIA
1
: the state of being homesick
2
: a wistful or excessively sentimental sometimes abnormal yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition
—nos·tal·gic \-jik\ adjective
—nos·tal·gi·cal·ly \-ji-k(ə-)lē\ adverb
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