Often I find I have a sense of nostalgia for things I've never actually experienced, in a way that rivals the same sort of feelings I have for things I have experienced.
For example when listening to music that was big before one's own generation or seeing old black and white photos of how people lived their lives generations before you were born.
It's an odd feeling I've heard many people talk about, but I've never quite had a word for explaining it.
Is there a term that describes this? Or is it still nostalgia?
Best Answer
I think the word wistful captures that sense of wishing for something, tinged with regret. I'm not sure that nostalgia requires you to have experienced the thing you're missing, but it does require it to be in the past. Wistfulness doesn't - I can feel wistful thinking of something I could be doing, or had once thought I would be doing by now, and neither of those fits nostalgia.