Nostalgia vs. Reminiscence — What's the Difference?

Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word nostalgia is learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning "homecoming", a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning "pain" or "ache", and was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home.

Reminiscence is the act of recollecting past experiences or events. An example of the typical use of reminiscence is when people share their personal stories with others or allows other people to live vicariously through stories of family, friends, and acquaintances while gaining an authentic meaningful relationship with the people.

A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past.

The act or process of recollecting past experiences or events.

The condition of being homesick; homesickness.

An experience or event recollected

A longing for home or familiar surroundings; homesickness.

Often reminiscences A narration of past experiences.

(transferred sense) A bittersweet yearning for the things of the past.

An event that brings to mind a similar, former event.

Homesickness; esp., a severe and sometimes fatal form of melancholia, due to homesickness.

An act of remembering long-past experiences, especially positive or pleasant ones, often fondly.

A sentimental yearning to return to an earlier time remembered as happier or more pleasant, or a former place evoking happy memories; a longing to experience again a former happy time; as, a nostalgia for the brotherhood of the Woodstock music festival; a nostalgia for the comradeship of one's college friends.

A mental image thus remembered.

Longing for something past

The act or power of recalling past experience; the state of being reminiscent; remembrance; memory.

That which is remembered, or recalled to mind; a statement or narration of remembered experience; a recollection; as, pleasing or painful reminiscences.

A mental impression retained and recalled from the past

The process of remembering (especially the process of recovering information by mental effort);