homesick

44 2.5

Feeling sad because you are away from home

adjective
/ˈhoʊmˌsɪk/

: nostálgico

After a week in a foreign country, Maria realized she was homesick for her cozy bedroom back home.
feel homesick
lost and homesick

And I was so homesick and I was so sad.

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Examples

Christina bit into a sugar cookie, and suddenly she was so homesick she wanted to weep.

Fiction book (1990)
So they're lonely, they're homesick, they're starving.
And I was so homesick and I was so sad.

Mel Robbins
I was so homesick they sent me home.
After many months, he grew homesick and returned to visit her one evening.

Academic text (1995)
Feeling lost and homesick is a common experience for many immigrants, whether old or young.

Academic text (2004)
We're hardly away yet and I'm homesick already.

S.O.S. Titanic (1980)
Molly watched her coming, and just for a moment it made her homesick for the beauty of her homeland.

Fiction book (1992)
By 1911, the couple had grown homesick for Poland and decided to return.

Fiction book (2001)
Immigrant children and their families first feel lost and homesick and then gradually adjust to their new lives and schools.

Academic text (2004)

How Homesick

bereft

Literature

17 7.5

yearning

39 5.5

homesick

44 2.5

wistful

16 6.5

Surface Forms

homesick positive

Morphology

homesick = home + sick (transparent) = home + sick

The meaning 'longing for home' is a direct combinational interpretation of 'home' + 'sick' and is readily inferable by learners.

Etymology

The word homesick is made of home and sick, and long ago people used 'sick' to mean 'ill with longing', as if the heart feels unwell when it misses home. That's why being homesick means you feel unhappy and strongly miss home when you are away.