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Wistful Has a Wishful History
We see you there, dear reader, gazing silently up at the moon, heart aching to know the history of wistful, as if it could be divined on the lunar surface. And we’d like to ease your melancholy by telling you that the knowledge you seek—nay, pine for—is closer at hand. But the etymology of wistful, while intriguing, is not entirely clear. It’s thought that the word is a combination of wistly, a now-obsolete word meaning “intently” and, perhaps, the similar-sounding wishful. Wistly, in turn, may have come from whistly, an old term meaning “silently” or “quietly.” What’s more certain is that our modern wistful is a great word to describe someone full of pensive yearning, or something inspiring such yearning.
Examples of wistful in a Sentence
Heidi Finley, Charlotte Observer, 23 Oct. 2025
Almost the entire supporting cast of the TV show are sidelined for the majority of the story, zeroing entirely on Denji and Reze’s sweet and slightly wistful dynamic.
—Wilson Chapman, IndieWire, 22 Oct. 2025
Some of Wittenberg’s works are exuberant, others somber or wistful.
—Grace Edquist, Vogue, 15 Oct. 2025
The Last Class, set to reach an ever-wider audience with next Wednesday’s one-night-only event, touches with a wistful quality as Reich completes his final semester.
—Matthew Carey, Deadline, 15 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wistful
Cite this Entry
“Wistful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wistful. Accessed 24 Oct. 2025.
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