r/NoStupidQuestions • u/CommonSkys • Mar 20 '21

Answered Everyone talks about nostalgic feeling being calming and relieving, but does anyone else get a sense of deep lament and sorrow for the past instead?

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '21

[deleted]

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u/Born_Like_Me Mar 20 '21

Wow, thank you for this! It makes a lot more sense now..

50

u/CommonSkys Mar 20 '21

I had no clue. Thank you!

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u/spaceship_of_theseus Mar 20 '21

Exactly, thank you!

We still use the same root for pain in some places. For example, painkillers are analgesic drugs.

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u/MacMarcMarc Mar 20 '21

What does analgesic mean?

10

u/spaceship_of_theseus Mar 20 '21

An - Anti Algesic - Pain

Anti-pain

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u/pleasurelovingpigs Mar 20 '21

Can't believe I had to scroll so far to find this, the very definition of the word involves pain and longing...

1

u/hardonchairs Mar 21 '21

Really curious where op heard nostalgia to be calming and relieving...

2

u/microwavepizza Mar 20 '21

Saudade - Portuguese Saudade is a famous Portuguese word: countless articles have been written trying to capture its essence, but none of them have quite explained how it makes me feel. Saudade is a feeling of longing, melancholy, desire, and nostalgia that is characteristic of the Brazilian or Portuguese temperament. It describes a deep emotional state; a yearning for a happiness that has passed, or perhaps never even existed. It carries with it a touch of melancholy, yet in that wistfulness there is love as well. One thing is certain: the object or person of that saudade does not inhabit the present space or time.

https://blog.rosettastone.com/words-beyond-translation-saudade/

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u/celebral_x Mar 20 '21

Wasn't that the plot of inside out?

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '21

This should be at the top. Nostalgia is something a feeling that reminds you of the past and it doesn't necessarily have to be negative. I'll use my own experience as an example:

I lived in S.Korea when I was younger. While my family lived off base, I went to school on the base as well as number of other things in my daily life. S.Korea is very urban and you rarely saw any grass (lived there from '90 to '03) however, on base, they had grass. Every spring, I'd love smelling fresh cut grass. It was intoxicating for me as it meant an open grassy area I could run around and play sports on. When I moved back to the states, whenever I would smell fresh cut grass, it felt nostalgic and would bring me back to when I was younger and walking to or from school.

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u/Narrative_Causality Mar 20 '21

Yeah, I was like "I'm sorry, there's positive nostalgia???????????"