solastalgia

noun

solastalgia

noun

/ˌsɒləsˈtæld͡ʒə/

Etymology Coined by Australian philosopher and researcher Glenn Albrecht in 2005 from Latin sōlācium (“solace, comfort”) + -algia (“pain”).

1

A form of homesickness experienced when one has not moved, but one's environment has changed.

  • There are many people writing and talking about extinction now, and about solastalgia, the psychic or existential distress caused by environmental change. Artists, musicians, dancers, and screenwriters are wringing profound solastalgia from the recesses of our collective subconscious and spinning its trajectory out into the light where we can get a better sense of it.2010, Albert Bates, The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change, New Society Publishers, →ISBN:
  • Part of what I feel in this city is solastalgia, not so much for buildings as for the routines I established around those buildings: the walk to visit friends in the CBD, the stroll to the cinema.2015, Fiona Farrell, The Villa at the Edge of the Empire, →ISBN, page 342:
Related terms
nostalgia

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.