English edit

Etymology edit

Coined by Australian philosopher and researcher Glenn Albrecht in 2005 from Latin sōlācium (solace, comfort) +‎ -algia (pain).[1]

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ˌsɒləsˈtæld͡ʒə/

Noun edit

solastalgia (uncountable)

  1. A form of homesickness experienced when one has not moved, but one's environment has changed.
    • 2010, Albert Bates, The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change, New Society Publishers, →ISBN:
      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.
    • 2015, Fiona Farrell, The Villa at the Edge of the Empire, →ISBN, page 342:
      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.

Related terms edit

Translations edit

References edit

  1. ^ Clive Thompson (2007 December 20) “Clive Thompson on How the Next Victim of Climate Change Will Be Our Minds”, in Wired Magazine[1], number 16.01, archived from the original on 2013-06-30