Friday, November 28, 2014

Word of the Day

nostomania
 \ nos-tuh-MEY-nee-uh, -MEYN-yuh \, noun;  
1.an irresistible compulsion to return home; intense homesickness.

Quotes:
The nostomania  of Odysseus arose from a yearning for what he already knew, already possessed.
-- Eric Ormsby, "The Dark Regime of Paradise," David Solway: Essays on His Works , edited by Carmine Starnino, 2001

He had once told me he found it extremely odd that while nostology was the study of senility, nostomania  had nothing at all to do with old age but simply meant a serious case of homesickness.
-- Peter Straub, A Dark Matter , 2010

Origin:
Nostomania  shares a root with the word nostalgia  in the Greek term nóstos , which means "a return home." It entered English in the mid-1800s.

Dictionary.com