Every few months, Oxford Dictionaries makes global headlines when it adds new words to its online vocabulary – the most
recent updates include ‘hangry’ (anger resulting from hunger) and ‘manspreading’ (sitting with legs wide apart).
At the same time, researchers are coining new words that never quite make it into the popular lexicon – but perhaps they should.
While you won’t find it in the Oxford English Dictionary, philosopher Glenn Albrecht once coined one such word while working at the University of Newcastle in Australia. 'Solastalgia’ – a portmanteau of the words ‘solace’ and ‘nostalgia’ – is used not just in academia but more widely, in clinical psychology and health policy in Australia, as well as by US researchers looking into the effects of wildfires in California.
It describes the feeling of distress associated with environmental change close to your home, explains Albrecht.
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