Nostalgia

 Scott Russell Sanders points out that the Greek roots of the word nostalgia mean return pain. He says the pain is from the longing to return, rather than the return itself.

Longing to return home is one way of relating to a place. It struck me as an odd place to start an inquiry into a sense of place, but Sanders makes an interesting point.

 

The word nostalgia was coined in 1688 as a medical term, to provide an equivalent for the German word for homesickness.

 

The word started out describing a condition that might require treatment. There’s truth in that, I think.

We can have such grief over the loss of the old home that we can’t do much with the home we’re in.

• Scott Russell Sanders, Staying Put; Boston: Beacon Press, 1993, p. 14.