Word of the Day

: September 9, 2018

wanderlust

noun WAHN-der-lust

What It Means

: strong longing for or impulse toward wandering

wanderlust in Context

"The trip inspired a new commitment to working with artisans from around the world. It also reanimated her genetic sense of wanderlust. She recently went back to Peru, to meet with a weaver she's been working with since that first trip." — Olivia Stren, Elle, 19 Nov. 2017

"David and Victoria Beckham know how to live life to the fullest. Days after ringing in their 19th wedding anniversary, the Beckhams have embarked on a family vacation to Croatia—and it is wanderlust-inducing." — Marissa G. Muller, W Magazine, 17 July 2018

Did You Know?

"For my part," writes Robert Louis Stevenson in Travels with a Donkey, "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 hike or roam about," and Lust means "pleasure or delight."