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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for February 26, 1999
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nostalgia [n. noh-STAL-juh]
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If you have felt a bittersweet longing upon remembering something from
the past, you may have felt nostalgia. It's not quite sadness and not
quite pain; it is more a wistful remembrance of how things used to be.
Until fairly recently the only accepted dictionary definition of the
word was "melancholia caused by severe homesickness." This somewhat
medical meaning has fallen out of common use, in favor of the broader,
more subtle sense described above.
The word is from the Greek nostos (a return home) and the suffix
-algia, from algos (pain). Nostos is from the ancient root nes-
(return home), which also appears in harness. The suffix -algia also
appears in other pain words, including neuralgia (nerve pain) and
myalgia (muscle pain).
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