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nostalgia

[no-stal-juh, -jee-uh, nuh-]

Origin

noun

a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days.

something that elicits or displays nostalgia.

Origin:
1770–80; < Neo-Latin < Greek nóst(os) a return home + -algia -algia

Related forms

nos·tal·gic, adjective

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To Nostalgia

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Nostalgia is a GRE word you need to know.

So is asylum. Does it mean:

foreign origin, strikingly unusual

refuge granted to a foreign person by a sovereign state

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Collins

World English Dictionary

nostalgia (nɒˈstældʒə, -dʒɪə)

—n
1.	a yearning for the return of past circumstances, events, etc
2.	the evocation of this emotion, as in a book, film, etc
3.	longing for home or family; homesickness

[C18: New Latin (translation of German Heimweh homesickness), from Greek nostos a return home + -algia]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

nostalgia

1770, "severe homesickness" (considered as a disease), Mod.L. (cf. Fr. nostalgie, 1802), coined 1668 by Johannes Hofer as a rendering of Ger. heimweh, from Gk. nostos "homecoming" + algos "pain, grief, distress" (see -algia). Transferred sense (the main modern one) of "wistful

EXPAND

yearning for the past" first recorded 1920.

COLLAPSE

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

nostalgia nos·tal·gia (nŏ-stāl'jə, nə-)
n.