Editing Nostalgia (section)

===As a medical condition===
{{Further|Homesickness}}
[[File:La Laitemaire.jpg|thumb|left|A rural landscape in [[Vaud]], [[Switzerland]]. The term "nostalgia" originally referred to the homesickness felt by [[Swiss mercenaries]].]]

The term was coined in 1688 by Johannes Hofer (1669–1752) in his dissertation in [[Basel]]. The word nostalgia was compound of the ancient Greek words nostos (return home) and algia (pain). Hofer introduced ''nostalgia'' or ''mal du pays'' "[[homesickness]]" for the condition also known as ''mal du Suisse'' "Swiss illness", because of its frequent occurrence in [[Swiss mercenaries]] who in the plains of [[Switzerland]] were pining for their landscapes. Symptoms were also thought to include fainting, high fever, and death.

English ''homesickness'' is a [[loan translation]] of ''nostalgia''. [[Joseph Banks|Sir Joseph Banks]] used the word in his journal during the first voyage of [[Captain Cook]]. On 3 September 1770 he stated that the sailors "were now pretty far gone with the longing for home which the Physicians have gone so far as to esteem a disease under the name of Nostalgia", but his journal was not published in his lifetime.<ref>[[John Beaglehole|Beaglehole, J. C.]] (ed.). The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks 1768–1771, Public Library of New South Wales/Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1962, vol. ii, p.&nbsp;145</ref> Cases resulting in death were known and soldiers were sometimes successfully treated by being discharged and sent home. Receiving a diagnosis was, however, generally regarded as an insult.

In the eighteenth century, scientists were looking for a locus of nostalgia, a nostalgic bone. By the 1850s nostalgia was losing its status as a particular disease and coming to be seen rather as a symptom or stage of a pathological process. It was considered as a form of [[melancholia]] and a predisposing condition among suicides. Nostalgia was, however, still diagnosed among soldiers as late as the [[American Civil War]].<ref>Wisconsin Public Radio, ''To the Best of Our Knowledge'', "Svetlana Boym on Nostalgia", 2002 November 3</ref> By the 1870s interest in nostalgia as a medical category had almost completely vanished. Nostalgia was still being recognized in both the [[World War I|First]] and [[World War II|Second]] World Wars, especially by the American armed forces. Great lengths were taken to study and understand the condition to stem the tide of troops leaving the front in droves (see the [[BBC]] documentary ''[[Century of the Self]]'').

Nostalgia is triggered by something reminding an individual of an event or item from their past. The resulting emotion can vary from [[happiness]] to [[sorrow (emotion)|sorrow]]. The term "feeling nostalgic" is more commonly used to describe pleasurable emotions associated with, or a longing to return to, a particular period of time.