Wanderlust
- “what does wanderlust mean”
- “is wanderlust a german word”
- “fernweh meaning”
- “word for wanting to travel”
:: COMPARE ::
WanderlustvsFernweh
The short answer
Wanderlust is an appetite: you want to go. Fernweh is an ache: it hurts to be here. One is built from Lust, desire; the other from Weh, pain — the same morpheme as in Heimweh, homesickness, of which it is the exact structural antonym.
Side by side
| Aspect | Wanderlust | Fernweh |
|---|---|---|
| Built from | Desire | Pain |
| Points at | Going | Not being there |
| Relieved by | A trip | Arrival |
| German range | Hiking, outdoors | Distance, longing |
| Feeling | A joy | An ache |
| Toward | Roaming itself | The far-away |
| Root | 'Wander-desire' | 'Far-pain' |
| Mood | Eager appetite | Restless longing |
Which one you meant
Readers who land here meaning Wanderlust rather than Fernweh are usually searching for phrases like “what does wanderlust mean”, “is wanderlust a german word”, “fernweh meaning”.
Fernweh
- “feeling homesick for a place I've never been”
- “an ache to be somewhere far away”
- “the german word for longing to travel”
- “wanting to be anywhere but here, somewhere distant”
Which came first
Fernweh. 1835 — Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau uses Fernweh repeatedly in his widely read travel writing from 1835 onward; the coinage is credited to him, built by analogy as the deliberate mirror-opposite of Heimweh (homesickness).
- 1835FernwehPrince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau uses Fernweh repeatedly in his widely read travel writing from 1835 onward; the coinage is credited to him, built by analogy as the deliberate mirror-opposite of Heimweh (homesickness).
- 1902WanderlustEnters English from German Wanderlust, literally 'desire for wandering'.
Where the confusion comes from
“Germans use Wanderlust the way English speakers do — dreaming of far-off places.”
The German word is built on wandern, 'to hike', and is glossed as the urge to travel and the love of the great outdoors. For the specific ache to be somewhere distant, German has Fernweh — literally 'far-pain', from fern 'far' and Weh 'pain', constructed as the deliberate opposite of Heimweh, homesickness. The stronger claim that Fernweh has entirely replaced Wanderlust in German is unverified.
Read either one in full