Daily AncestorNostalgia
Nostalgia, meaning homesickness, was once treated as a real and sometimes fatal disease, and army doctors still diagnosed it during the Civil War.
The word was coined in the 1600s by a medical student describing Swiss soldiers wasting away far from home. Doctors believed deep longing for home could make a person sick, and cases ending in death were reported.
It was still diagnosed among soldiers in the American Civil War, then faded as a medical category in the 1870s. A soldier recorded as dying of nostalgia was usually ill with something else as well.
As seen in a recordCivil War hospital register
Pvt. Saml. Ide, 19, Nostalgia
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Daily Ancestor. "Nostalgia." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/nostalgia. Last checked 2026-10-01.