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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
Nathan Smith, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2026
Poppy is a New York travel writer with wanderlust.
—Kaycee Sloan, Cincinnati Enquirer, 9 Jan. 2026
In the meantime, scroll below to brush up on all of The White Lotus’s wanderlust-inducing filming locations from seasons past.
—Nicole Kliest, Vogue, 9 Jan. 2026
But hopefully all spark a little wanderlust.
—Ava Wallace, Washington Post, 8 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for wanderlust
Cite this Entry
“Wanderlust.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wanderlust. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
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wanderlust
noun
