Solastalgia

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌsɒləsˈtæld͡ʒə/

Definitions

1. The emotional pain and anxiety felt when one’s home environment undergoes negative alterations leading to a sense of loss
2. A psychological state marked by grief and unease triggered by damaging changes in the surrounding natural landscape where one lives
3. A distressing feeling of homesickness combined with environmental change, causing mental discomfort without physical displacement

Etymology: Glenn Albrecht, an Australian philosopher and researcher, coined this term in 2005 to name a distress that people feel when the place they live in changes around them. The word blends Latin "sōlācium," meaning "solace" or "comfort," with the combining element "-algia," meaning "pain," the same ending found in "neuralgia." Its meaning is therefore the opposite of what the first half suggests: it is the ache of losing comfort while still living at home. Albrecht built the word from the idea of "solace," the comfort a home provides, and "-algia," the pain of its loss. Because the term was new, its earliest public spread came through journalism. In December 2007, the writer Clive Thompson discussed it in Wired Magazine, describing climate change as something that could affect people's minds as well as their land.

Synonyms: eco-anxiety, environmental distress, climate grief, ecological grief, environmental melancholy

Antonyms: environmental contentment, environmental comfort