algesi-, alge-, alges-, algesio-, algi-, algio-, -algesia, -algesic, -algetic, -algic, -algia, -algy
(Greek: pain, sense of pain; painful; hurting)
Used actively in medical terminology to denote a condition of sensitivity to pain as specified by the combining root.
2. A mixed feeling of happiness, sadness, and longing when recalling a person, place, or event something from the past: Jake was filled with nostalgia for his college days.
3. The pain of yearning for a former time in one’s life or for familiar people and surroundings: Smelling the bread baking in the oven gave Rebecca a feeling of nostalgia of how it used to be in the kitchen when she was a child.
4. Etymology: from 1770, "severe homesickness" (considered as a disease), Modern Latin, coined in 1668 by Johannes Hofer as a rendering of German heimweh, from Greek nostos, "homecoming" + algos, "pain, grief, distress".
The transferred sense of "wistful yearning for a past or earlier time", was first recorded in D.H. Lawrence's The Lost Girl in 1920.
Homesickness or a strong desire to return to one's home
The pain of longing to return home, to a former time in one’s life, or to familiar people and surroundings; severe home sickness. The illustration above suggests that at least one of the Panda bears wants to return to China, its native land.
A nostalgic feeling is considered to be a mixed feeling of happiness, sadness, and longing when recalling a person, place, or event something from his or her past.
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.
You may take self-scoring quizzes over some of the words in this unit by going to Algesi Quiz to check your word knowledge of these words.