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Meet the Word
🔊 no-STAL-juh · noun
Nostalgia is that warm, slightly aching feeling of missing a time, place, or version of your life that's already gone — an old song, a childhood smell, a summer you can't get back to. It's happy and sad at the same time, which is exactly why it's so hard to shake once it hits. And here's the twist: this cozy little word didn't start out cozy at all. It started out as a diagnosis.
This word was so serious 300 years ago that doctors genuinely thought it could kill you. See how it gets used today — and the one thing almost everyone gets backwards about it.
See It in Action →