A question that someone asked me in class today...


If nostalgia is a fond remembrance of pleasant times what would the opposite be - a word meaning unhappy remembrance of unpleasant times?

One of my colleagues suggested "regret" but that doesn't seem to have the right meaning to me.

Away out here they've got a name for rain and wind and fire. The rain is Tess, the fire's Joe. They call the wind Maria.
Maria blows the stars around and sets the clouds a-flyin'. Maria makes the mountains sound like folks was out there dyin'.
Maria. (Maria). Maria. (Maria). They call the wind Maria.

Before I knew Maria's name and heard her wail and whinin', I had a gal. She had me and the sun was always shinin'.
But then one day I left my gal. I left her far behind me and now I'm lost, so gol' darn lost not even God can find me.
Maria. (Maria.) Maria. (Maria.) They call the wind Maria.

Out here they have a name for rain and wind and fire only. When you're lost and all alone, there ain't no name for lonely.
And I'm a lost and lonely man without a star to guide me. Maria blow my love to me. I need my gal beside me.
Maria. (Maria.) They call the wind Maria. Maria! Maria. (Maria.) They call the wind Maria."Maria"

Flashback?

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# Psychology A recurring, intensely vivid mental image of a past traumatic experience: "Another study shows that women who served in Vietnam still struggle with depression, anxiety, and painful flashbacks from the war" (New York Times).

Nostalgia is not merely a fond remembrance of past times, but a longing to return to those times. Although, interestingly, one of the definitions from the OED Online is, "Sentimental longing for or regretful memory of a period of the past, esp. one in an individual's own lifetime; (also) sentimental imagining or evocation of a period of the past" (emphasis mine), and gives this 1959 quote from the Observer, "Nostalgia for one's childhood does not necessarily mean that the childhood was a happy one."

Interesting question. I have always been frustrated that the reverse dictionaries aren't better. You'd think, in this day and age (don't I sound old?), that they'd be better.

Regret doesn't do it for me because a regret can come at any time. Right now I regret that I am not in bed! Flashback, I think, can be of good or bad things, can't it? Some of the definitions did day "vivid recollection of a traumatic experience," so I could be wrong. Even if it always means "traumatic experiences," nostalgia seems more general to me.

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If nostalgia is a fond remembrance of pleasant times

The etymology of the word surprised me. Dictionary.com Unabridged says

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Gk nóst(os) a return home + -algia

where algia comes not from the Greek word for fond remembrance but from the word for pain. The Online Etymology Dictionary say

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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." Transferred sense (the main modern one) of "wistful yearning for the past" first recorded 1920.

Mind you, nostalgia's not what it used to be.

Well done Richard. You win the prize. When I posted I wondered who would be the first to make that joke.

Incidentally the Bierce definition is "Fond remembrance of imaginary times past."

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When I posted I wondered who would be the first to make that joke.

Even the joke's nostalgic!

Nostalgia's a thing of the past.