4 ms·
I didn't know that "nostalgia" means "home pain" (pretty close to "homesickness", really) or that the term was invented by a 17th century Swiss physician. Accor
by gruseom 13y ago
I didn't know that "nostalgia" means "home pain" (pretty close to "homesickness", really) or that the term was invented by a 17th century Swiss physician. According to [1], it was a calque from the German "heimweh", presumably because if you were a 17th century physician, your new disease wasn't proper until it had a classical name. (Edit: in fact, "homesick" was also a calque from the German "heimweh", according to [2]. So "nostalgia" and "homesickness" are cognate!)
The article doesn't make clear how the researchers distinguish nostalgia from simply remembering with emotion, which is not the same thing.
[1] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=nostalgia http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=nostalgia
[2] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=homesickness http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=homesickness
- pjmlp 13y agoFor Portuguese speakers you also have "saudade", which is also hard to express in other languages, as it means a mix of nostalgia, home sickness, to miss something, depending on the context. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudade
- vichu 13y agoI am tempted at this time to post the source from where I personally learned the word "saudade." Dinosaur Comics: http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=2129 http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=2129 The alt-text for the comic is particularly fascinating as well. To know that Brazil celebrates a National Saudade Day is reassuring and romantic.