nostalgia

noun

nos·​tal·​gia nä-ˈstal-jə 

nə-

also nȯ-, 

nō-;

nə-ˈstäl-

1

: a sad pleasure experienced in recalling what no longer exists : a wistful or sentimental yearning for a return to or the return of some real or romanticized past period or some irrecoverable past condition or setting

They were filled with nostalgia for their college days.

His family once worked at the local slaughterhouse, but their jobs have been automated into oblivion, leaving them with nothing but nostalgia for their old day-to-day.

—Jackson Arn

also : something that evokes nostalgia

The play is also full of nostalgia—there are no phones in the play.

—Sheryl DeVore

2

: the state of being homesick : homesickness

A wave of nostalgia swept over me when I saw my childhood home.

nostalgist

nä-ˈstal-jist 

nə-

also nȯ-, 

nō-;

nə-ˈstäl-

noun

plural nostalgists

… is no nostalgist chasing the resurrection of the grand old days.

—Joe O'Connor

Examples of nostalgia in a Sentence

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 This Quiet Dust and Other Writings,  1982

A wave of nostalgia swept over me when I saw my childhood home.

He was filled with nostalgia for his college days.

Recent Examples on the Web

The unease is narrower and more stubborn than nostalgia for the old regime. —Dara-Abasi Ita, Forbes.com, 13 June 2026

Cozy perfumes are taking over because consumers are craving comfort, nostalgia and a sense of discovery rather than the straightforward fresh and floral scents that dominated earlier years. —Lauren Jarvis-Gibson, Charlotte Observer, 12 June 2026

Op-eds have painted the president’s reverence for traditional design as mere nostalgia that will lead, inevitably, to pastiche and derivative mimicry while stifling innovation. —Oscar Holland, CNN Money, 12 June 2026

The shift is showing up across major beauty publications and in the labs of independent perfumers, who say consumers want scents tied to nostalgia, comfort and a sense of discovery. —Lauren Jarvis-Gibson, Sacbee.com, 12 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, from Greek nóstos "return, homecoming" (nominal derivative, with o-ablaut and the suffix -to-, from the base of néomai, neîsthai "to come/go [home, back], return") + -o- -o- + -algia -algia; néomai going back to the Indo-European verbal base *nes- "escape danger, return safely," whence also Germanic *nesan- "to be saved, return safely" (whence Old English nesan, genesan "to be saved, survive" [strong verb class V], Old Saxon ginesan "to be saved, convalesce," Old High German, "to recover, be saved," Gothic ganisan "to be saved"), Sanskrit násate "approaches, resorts to someone, joins"; from a causative stem *nos-éi̯e- Germanic *nazjan-, whence Old English nerian "to save, preserve," Old Frisian nera "to save, nourish, Old Saxon nerian "to rescue, redeem, nourish," Old High German nerien, nerren "to nourish, support, save, heal," Gothic nasjan "to save, heal"; and from lengthened grade *nōzjan- Old Icelandic nœra "to refresh, nourish"

Note: The Latin word nostalgia was coined by the physician Johannes Hofer (1669-1752), a native of Mühlhausen/Mulhouse in Alsace, in his doctoral thesis Dissertatio medica de ΝΟΣΤΑΛΓΙΑ, oder Heimwehe (Basel, 1688), as a calque of the German word Heimweh. — Also assigned to the Indo-European verbal base *nes- by some are Tocharian A nasam, B nesau "(I) am," though Douglas Adams (A Dictionary of Tocharian B, Revised and Enlarged, Rodopi, 2013, s.v.) proposes a more attractive solution.

First Known Use

1756, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for nostalgia

• arthralgia
• fibromyalgia
• myalgia

Kids Definition

nostalgia

noun

nos·​tal·​gia nä-ˈstal-jə 

nə-

: a longing for something past

nostalgic

-jik 

adjective

nostalgically

-ji-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

Medical Definition

nostalgia

noun

nos·​tal·​gia nä-ˈstal-jə, nə-, nȯ-; nə-ˈstäl- 

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

nostalgic

-jik 

adjective

nostalgically

-ji-k(ə-)lē 

adverb