This category encompasses aesthetics that evoke feelings of nostalgia or have nostalgic appeal.
Etymology[]
"Nostalgia" is derived from Greek "όστος" (nóstos), meaning "homecoming," and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning "pain" or "suffering." Nóstos is an Ancient Greek word with Homeric roots, which appeared in texts like The Odyssey to describe the yearning return journey of Odysseus.
The term was coined in the 17th century by Johannes Hofer, a Swiss medical student, who used it to describe a condition observed in Swiss mercenaries fighting far from their homeland. They exhibited symptoms of anxiety, depression, and physical ailments. He combined the two Greek words to create "nostalgia," literally meaning "homecoming pain."
What counts as a nostalgic aesthetic?[]
Nostalgia is a subjective emotion. Some aesthetics or subcultures might be nostalgic only for a specific group of people. For example, while Nostalgiacore is broadly based on nostalgia for any generation, Cyber Stylin' or Technoneko2000 might be nostalgic for teens and young adults. Meanwhile, Americana is a nostalgic aesthetic for the United States before the 2000s, while Bakala is mainly nostalgic for Generation X adults in Spain. This category aims to equally include these aesthetics with nostalgic appeal.
Nostalgia is often associated with personal experiences, but sometimes also encompasses longing for past eras, even those that predate living memory. For instance, styles like Art Nouveau and Art Deco, though from a time beyond most current living people's direct experience, can still evoke a sense of nostalgia through representations in media or their aesthetic appeal. These are often nicknamed vintage aesthetics.
Related Concepts[]
Longing and Homesickness[]
Homesickness was the original meaning of nostalgia as coined by Johannes Hofer in the 17th century. Longing for something, especially one's own culture or someone, is a common human experience. This is documented in various languages with specific words that capture aspects of this emotion. Most of these terms have very specific meanings inherently attached to their cultural roots and do not have direct translations in English.
The following are some examples:
- The English word "wistful" describes the melancholic yearning for something lost.
- Welsh hiraeth conveys a longing for a home that may no longer exist, with a sense of displacement.
- Saudade in Portuguese, Brazilian, and Galician cultures expresses a yearning for someone or something that is lost or unattainable.
- In Galician culture, morriña describes a longing for one's land, often accompanied by melancholy. It has a much stronger meaning than saudade, described as "so strong it could even kill."
- Russian toska (Тоска) describes an existential longing, a yearning for something that cannot be defined.
- Sehnsucht is a German cultural concept that encompasses a yearning for an ideal, unattainable state or a longing for a profound emotional experience, often described with a sense of incompleteness.
- Dor is a uniquely Romanian word that literally means "to miss someone" or "to miss something."
- Natsukashii (懐かしい) is a Japanese concept that describes a feeling of nostalgia evoked by something that reminds one of the past, but with a sense of warmth and fondness.
Anemoia[]
Anemoia describes a feeling of nostalgia for a time period one has never personally experienced. Nostalgia is traditionally rooted in personal memories and experiences, but anemoia is a more generalized longing for a past era, often influenced by romanticized depictions in popular media.
20-Year Nostalgia Cycle[]
The concept of the "20-year nostalgia cycle" suggests that pop culture trends tend to resurface and become popular again approximately two decades after their initial peak. This pattern causes the generation that experienced those times to revisit and reflect on the trends of their youth with a sense of fondness and appreciation, while also introducing them to a new generation.
Nowstalgia[]
Nowstalgia, a portmanteau of "now" and "nostalgia," refers to the phenomenon of experiencing nostalgia for very recent events and trends. The term was coined by advertising agency Madwell in 2016, which defined it as “The impulse to return to an imagined past by those who never experienced it in the first place.”
This accelerated form of nostalgia is mainly found within members of Generation Z, linked to the rapid emergence and decline of trends, especially on short-form content platforms like TikTok. The COVID-19 pandemic also intensified nowstalgia, as lockdowns and social distancing measures disrupted the passing of time and experiences. This creates a sense that even recent experiences are quickly becoming part of the past, leading to a longing for trends and moments from the past few years, months, or even weeks. Some examples include the resurgence of Frutiger Aero, which was a unlabelled design style until 2017, or 2020 TikTok, which resurfaced in 2025 with the hashtag "#make2025thenew2020".
References[]
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