fernweh
- A German loanword for an aching, wanderlust-like longing to travel to distant or foreign places, sometimes described as the opposite of homesickness.
In a sentence
- A month into lockdown, his fernweh became almost physical, a restless itch that no armchair travel documentary could relieve.
- She kept a world map above her desk to feed her fernweh during the long months of saving for her next trip.
Usage note. Fernweh is a legitimate German compound increasingly used in English travel writing; italicize or gloss it for formal contexts since it has not yet been absorbed into standard English dictionaries.
Where it comes from
English fernweh · entered English 20th–21st c.
Borrowed from German, where it is formed from 'Fern' (far, distant) and 'Weh' (ache, pain), literally meaning 'far-ache' or 'distance pain,' by analogy with 'Heimweh' (homesickness, literally 'home-ache'). It has been in use in German for well over a century and has been adopted in English informal and travel writing primarily in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, though it is not yet in major English dictionaries.