I just learned the root of the word nostalgia. Nostalgia that I (we?) think of as a twee emotion. As looking back with misty-eyes, rose-tinted glasses. As – perhaps at its strongest – memorial fondness.

But the root is much darker.

It is from the Greek. The woman who told me was giving a lecture on the Trojan war and she peppered her speech with Ancient Greek.

She said algia, from algos, meaning pain. Like myalgia. And nostos, meaning the journey home.

The pain of the journey home.

The nostalgic Odyssey.

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