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fresh_42 said:Here they say "Ostalgie", ost = east.
I seem to vaguely recollect references in many poems, song lyrics and prose where the West -- the direction of the setting Sun -- to be used as a euphemism for the future or perhaps a foreshadowing of something ending, maybe somebody dying.WWGD said:Kind of weird, in all languages I know it has no apparent connection with any orientation.
By the same token, it would stand to reason that East, the direction of the Sun's rising, would symbolize the past, or maybe past beginnings.
So the idea that the word nostalgia is somehow etymologically connected to East doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
[Edit: etymological dictionaries are telling me that it's etymological origin is from "severe homesickness" though.]
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