- nostalgia
- 1770, "severe homesickness" (considered as a disease), Mod.L. (cf. Fr. nostalgie, 1802), coined 1668 by Johannes Hofer as a rendering of Ger. heimweh, from Gk. nostos "homecoming" + algos "pain, grief, distress" (see -algia). Transferred sense (the main modern one) of "wistful yearning for the past" first recorded 1920.
- nostalgic
- 1806, from nostalgia.
- Madeleine
- variation of Madeline. The kind of small, rich confection is attested from 1845, named for Madeleine Paulmier, 19c. Fr. pastry cook; any use with a sense of "small thing that evokes powerful nostalgia" is due to Proust (1922).