nostalgia
n. uncountablen. a bittersweet feeling of missing the past. You feel this when you remember happy times or places from your childhood and wish you could experience them again.
n. a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past. Often associated with a desire to return to a previous state or location.
Hearing that old song filled me with nostalgia.
The smell of fresh cookies always triggers a wave of nostalgia for my grandmother's kitchen.
The film uses warm lighting and vintage costumes to evoke a sense of nostalgia for the 1950s, even for viewers who never lived through that era.
From New Latin nostalgia, coined by Johannes Hofer in 1688 from Ancient Greek νόστος (nóstos, “returning home”) + ἄλγος (álgos, “pain”), calquing German Heimweh. Ancient Greek νοσταλγία (nostalgía) is unattested. Transferred sense probably influenced by French nostalgie, especially in literature. Compare Italian nostalgia, Spanish nostalgia, Portuguese nostalgia and French nostalgie.
Commonly paired with the preposition 'for' ('nostalgia for childhood') or the verb 'evoke'.