coined by John Koenig
anemoia
Homesickness for a decade you were born too late to see, set off by a box of a stranger's 1960s slides or a song from before your parents met.
Words for time
Nostalgia, anticipation, and the strange texture of moments passing.
coined by John Koenig
kenopsia
The wrong-footed quiet of a stadium concourse the morning after a game, or any room built for a crowd and standing empty.
loanword
natsukashii 懐かしい
Walking past your old primary school as the same lunch chime plays, and saying the word out loud before you have decided to.
loanword
saudade
Hearing a fado on a Lisbon tram and missing a grandmother's kitchen that is gone, while half-enjoying the missing.
loanword
Sehnsucht
Hearing a song from when you were sixteen in a supermarket aisle and wanting, badly, something you cannot name or get back.
coined by John Koenig
vellichor
The quiet pull of a used bookstore, where a pencilled price, a stranger's inscription and a forgotten bus ticket each point to an earlier owner.