homesicknessn.
/ˈhəʊmˌsɪknᵻs/, U.S. /ˈhoʊmˌsɪknᵻs/ Sadness caused by longing for one's home or family during a period of absence. Also: an instance of this.In early use sometimes regarded as a medical condition; cf. nostalgia n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [noun] > nostalgia > homesickness
country disease1562
Heimweha1721
maladie du pays1749
homesickness1756
nostalgia1756
mal du pays1777
nostalgy1846
channel fever1850
1756 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. I. 141 At least it is thus Scheuchzer endeavours to vindicate the nostalgia, pathopatridalgia, or the heimweh [Ger. Heimweh], i.e. home-sickness, with which those of Bern are especially afflicted.
1780 J. Thacher Mil. Jrnl. (1827) 242 We are troubled with..instances of indisposition, occasioned by absence from home, called by Dr. Cullen nostalgia or home sickness.
1800 S. T. Coleridge Home-sick in Ann. Anthol. II. 193 Home-sickness is no baby pang, This feel I hourly more and more, There's healing only in thy wings Thou breeze that play'st on Albion's shore.
1805 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. 3 235 A cat is as subject as a mountaineer to the home-sickness.
1894 J. Knight D. Garrick xi. 205 Venice allured him for a month, but a home-sickness began to attack him.
1942 National Geographic Mag. June 723/2 The authoritative Irish-American bark of these blue-uniformed men adds to the homesickness of New York workmen.
1983 B. Savage Miles from Nowhere xviii. 313 As I listened to Janie talk about beach volleyball, the harbor, Mexican food, and skiing in the Sierras, the old gnawing homesickness began to swell.
2006 S. John Beach House 8 A feeling of homesickness swept over her.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1756