Mollie Panter-Downes
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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. The word wistful comes from wistly, a now-obsolete word meaning "intently," and the similar-sounding wishful. Wistly, in turn, likely comes from whist, an old term meaning "silent." 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
Literary Hub, 10 June 2026
As zany and wistful as Faye Wong, only shorter.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, PEOPLE, 3 June 2026
The singer-songwriter’s forthright and wistful new record, Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me, is an exercise in revisitation that yields expanding, not diminishing, returns.
—Hattie Lindert, Pitchfork, 29 May 2026
So the two spend a warm, wistful stretch in Paris, wandering museums and savoring each other’s company.
—Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 29 May 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Wistful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wistful. Accessed 14 Jun. 2026.
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