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Glite Dictionary
nostalgically

nostalgically

2 6.0
In a way that shows gentle sadness when people remember the past
  • adverb
  • /nəˈstæl.dʒɪ.kli/
translation icon : nostálgicamente
  • Others, especially the elderly, look back nostalgically to the security of the old times.
  • remember it nostalgically
  • look back nostalgically
  • thinks nostalgically

Examples

  • In the army, he looked back nostalgically to Princeton in his poems.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Are we nostalgically indulging our longing to get back to the future?

    Academic text (1993)

  • The play concludes nostalgically with a reference to a vision, which will have returned in the near future.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Like us, Yosui came from a small village and often wrote nostalgically of his hometown.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • At a certain point, we asked the settlers to imagine themselves five years after the evacuation, nostalgically dreaming about life in their settlement.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Farming was the main occupation, a lifestyle most people in the West remember only nostalgically from their childhood or from stories and movies.

    Academic text (1997)

  • We have all glimpsed the Garden of Eden; we remember it nostalgically at the deepest level of our being.

    Academic text (1993)

  • I don't know how many out there feel this way who might look nostalgically on having been in school where your only job in life was to learn.

  • "Last year we drank tea at Zhu Hen's bunk," Li Weiguo murmured nostalgically.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Others, especially the elderly, look back nostalgically to the security of the old times.

Synonyms

fondly
vsnostalgically
41 1.5

In a warm way that shows liking or love

expresses sentimental longing specifically for things from times gone by
wistfully
vsnostalgically
10 5.6

In a sad way that shows you wish for something you no longer have

is about gentle fondness for past experiences rather than regretful yearning
sentimentally
vsnostalgically
2 4.7

In a way that shows warm feelings about people or the past

refers specifically to emotion about past personal memories
reminiscently
vsnostalgically
6.6

In a way that shows a person remembering the past

focuses on feeling sentimental about those past experiences rather than mere recall

Antonyms

unemotionally
1 5.0

In a calm way that does not show feelings

How Nostalgic

longingly
7 4.5
nostalgically
2 6.0
wistfully
10 5.6

Surface Forms

nostalgically positive

Morphology

nostalgically = nostalgic (transparent) = nostalgia + ic + ally

Formed by adding a regular adverbial ending to the adjective 'nostalgic'; the manner-of-acting meaning is predictable.

Etymology

Nostalgically comes from nostalgia, which itself comes from the old Greek parts nostos meaning 'return home' and algos meaning 'pain' or 'ache'. So, to feel nostalgically is like being 'homesick' for the past, remembering old times with a sweet, slightly painful wish to go back.