In case you
didn’t know, I love to travel and I am fascinated by languages. While browsing pinterest the other day I saw
a pin that said; “Fernweh – ‘an ache for distant places’; a craving for travel”. The word intrigued me, so I
decided to google it and see what else I could find. The first link I came across informed me that
the word isn’t actually English, it is German.
Their definition was different than the one I saw on pinterest, but carried the same idea: "literally, 'farsickness'; 'an ache for the distance'; wanderlust". Since the word wanderlust linked to another Wikipedia article I decided
to click on it and see what it would tell me.
Here’s what I found out:
“The
loanword from the German language became an English term
in 1902 as a reflection of what was then seen as a characteristically
German predilection for wandering that may be traced back to German
Romanticism and the German system
of apprenticeship (the journeyman).”
And I immediately thought to myself (as if
you can think to someone else – I’m not even sure why people say that), “Do I
love to travel because my ancestors are mostly (if not all) German?” It’s kind of crazy, I always assumed I got it
from my Grandmother – she was always on the go.
She always wanted to drive somewhere, or go visit someone, and had visited
several countries with my Grandfather before I was born. She’s of German descent as well, so maybe
it’s a combination of the two.
I always remember her telling me, "Home is where you go when there's no place else to go." Regardless, I found that little tid-bit of information about the word wanderlust
to be fascinating. Makes me wonder if any of my ancestors were gypsies....
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| *I do not own the rights to this photo* |
wan·der·lust (noun)
a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about.
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