Nostalgia is a
sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word
nostalgia is a learned formation of a
Greek compound, consisting of (
nóstos), meaning "homecoming", a
Homeric word, and (
álgos), meaning "pain, ache", and was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by
Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home. Described as a medical condition—a form of
melancholy—in the
Early Modern period, it became an important
trope in
Romanticism.
