Word of the Day

: March 19, 2010

wanderlust

noun WAHN-der-lust

What It Means

: strong longing for or impulse towards wandering

wanderlust in Context

After years of traveling, Philip accepted a job in Minnesota and announced his intention to settle down, but once the first cold snap hit, it didn’t take long for wanderlust to set in again.

Did You Know?

"For my part," writes Robert Louis Stevenson in Travels with a Donkey, "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." Sounds like a case of wanderlust if we ever heard one. Those with "wanderlust" don't necessarily need to go anywhere in particular; they just don't care to stay in one spot. The etymology of "wanderlust" is a very simple one that you can probably figure out yourself. "Wanderlust" is lust (or "desire") for wandering. The word comes from German, in which "wandern" means "to wander," and "Lust" means "desire."