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Wistful Has a Wishful History
We see you there, dear reader, gazing silently up at the moon, heart aching to know the history of wistful, as if it could be divined on the lunar surface. And we’d like to ease your melancholy by telling you that the knowledge you seek—nay, pine for—is closer at hand. But the etymology of wistful, while intriguing, is not entirely clear. It’s thought that the word is a combination of wistly, a now-obsolete word meaning “intently” and, perhaps, the similar-sounding wishful. Wistly, in turn, may have come from whistly, an old term meaning “silently” or “quietly.” What’s more certain is that our modern wistful is a great word to describe someone full of pensive yearning, or something inspiring such yearning.
Examples of wistful in a Sentence
Carlos Aguilar, Variety, 25 Jan. 2025
In contrast, this Nosferatu begins and ends with Ellen onscreen making decisions — impulsive and shortsighted, purposeful and wistful — about her own life.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 22 Jan. 2025
The camera lingers during these moments — made wistful by the music of wind caressing the tree leaves, and by Vikas Urs’ gorgeous landscape cinematography — as the actors pore over each word, pause and emotion.
—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 28 Jan. 2025
Where there was once a wistful Mona Lisa-style facial expression — lips parted enough to suggest a smile or a grimace, depending on perspective — now there is no room for interpretation.
—Leah Dolan, CNN, 28 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for wistful 
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Cite this Entry
“Wistful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wistful. Accessed 16 Feb. 2025.
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