Daily Vocabulary

nostalgia: the ache for home, in the tradition Greek definition. It was once the feeling felt by settlers and travelers in the Classical period for their own place, their own home. It was felt most poignantly by exiles, those who had been cast out of their homelands. Greece was littered with the like of them. Now, in modern times, it means only the fond feeling for things which are past, possibly with a suggestion of longing. But we no longer ache for that home we have left behind us; we are too used to moving on, and the soil on which we are grown does not often cling to our feet. Yet today, for a little bit, on meeting with an old friend, I felt a hint of the old Greek nostalgia, and knew that there is a place that will always call me home, though I lived there only briefly.