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Wanderlust Has German Roots
"For my part," writes Robert Louis Stevenson in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move..." Sounds like a case of wanderlust if we ever heard one. Those with wanderlust don't necessarily need to go anywhere in particular; they just don't care to stay in one spot. The etymology of wanderlust is a very simple one that you can probably figure out yourself. Wanderlust is a lust for wandering. The word comes from German, in which wandern means "to wander, hike, or stray" and Lust means "pleasure" or "desire."
Examples of wanderlust in a Sentence
Tim Grierson, Rolling Stone, 11 Oct. 2025
Venkataraman said the isolation of the COVID pandemic is what really ignited her son's wanderlust.
—Vanessa Romo, NPR, 10 Oct. 2025
Moonshot wanderlust initially kicked into high gear after Elon Musk’s groundbreaking 2017 award from Tesla, once valued as high as $56 billion before it was twice rescinded owing to a legal challenge.
—Amanda Gerut, Fortune, 5 Oct. 2025
Frederick Anderson traded last season’s darkness for light with a Spring 2026 collection inspired by global escapes, vibrant color, and airy fabrics that embodied joy and wanderlust.
—Skylar Mitchell, Essence, 18 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wanderlust
Cite this Entry
“Wanderlust.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wanderlust. Accessed 19 Oct. 2025.
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wanderlust
noun
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