anemoia

Coined by John Koenig in 2012, whose project, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, aims to come up with new words for emotions that currently lack words. Constructed from Ancient Greek ἄνεμος (ánemos, “wind”) + νόος (nóos, “mind”), with reference to anemosis, the warping of a tree by high wind "until it seems to bend backward."[1]

anemoia (uncountable)

1. Nostalgia for a time or a place one has never known.
   • 2015 November 15, Robert Trussell, “Awash in nostalgia”, in The Kansas City Star, volume 136, number 59, Kansas City, Mo., page 12D:

     Yet, from reboots to genre revivals, nostalgia remains a powerful force in pop culture. So does an associated phenomenon, called anemoia, which is essentially nostalgia for a past you’ve never experienced. Nostalgia and anemoia have been Broadway’s bread and butter for decades.

   • 2018 May 17, Shane Nyman, “Local guy’s ‘Africa’ remix perfects nostalgia”, in The Post-Crescent, volume 99, number 118, Appleton, Wis., page 6A:

     Goetzman (who also records his own own^[sic] original music under the alias Raspberries and Rum) brought up another idea as a possible explanation for his Toto-based virality: anemoia. That’s the concept of a person feeling nostalgic for something they never experienced. […] What I can say is this little video and its embedded nostalgia — or anemoia — seems to be bringing a little happiness to people all over the world.

   • 2018, Harley, Trevor, The Psychology of Weather‎, Routledge, →ISBN, page 102:

     A White Christmas is the perfect example of anemoia, nostalgia for a time we never knew.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:anemoia.