Years ago my spanish professor of Arts talk me about the greek therm that is the oposite for Nostalgia (Homesick) . And he mentioned the word Apodemialgia. I hear about that word never again, and since, I have been searching for more informations but without any clue. ¿Can some body tell me about it? .
Well -αλγία (-algia) is a suffix to indicate sickness, from the verb ἀλγῶ (algo) which means to suffer in body.
The “apodem” part, I suppose, comes from the verb ἀποδημῶ (apodemo) which means to be away from home, abroad. This is opposite to the verb νοστῶ (nosto) (the “nost” in “nostalgia”) which means to come home.
Now if I recall correctly “nostalgia” was coined in the 17th century to describe Swiss mercenaries who were fighting away from home, so I don’t think you’ll actually find either it or this “apodemalgia” word (which I’ve never heard of but makes sense) in the Greek writers.
What actually is the opposite of “nostalgia”? Joy of being abroad? Or languor for foreign countries? Or the pain of being stuck at home? Ἄλγος (τό) thus means ‘pain’. If one rejoices being abroad, that is of course logically impossible to be used. “Joy” can be e.g. τέρψις (ἡ) in Greek. I’m not sure of the compound, but 1st declension nouns often become -ο-stems as Vorderglied, so ἀποδημία (there’s also ἐκδημία) could become ἀποδημιότερψις.
I’m also uncertain if -αλγία is valid derivation, as the stem is ἄλγεσ-, not 2nd (and 1st) declension **ἄλγ(ο)- + -ία. Possibly -αλγεία < *-αλγεσ-ία? Douglas Harper tells that νοσταλγ(ε)ία is originally a translation of the German “Heimweh”. Practically it means the same as ‘home-sickness’ and indeed originates from Switzerland, as Amplaos said. The sense it’s now generally used to denote (‘pining for something past’) is from D. H. Lawrence from 1920, according to OED.
If one wishes to evince the wistfulness of going abroad, that might be ἀποδημιόποθος. Or oἰκαλγ(ε)ία, the pain of having to be home.