wistful

English

Etymology

Presumably from *whistful, from whist (“silent”) + -ful, based on older wistly. It is implausible that it derives from wishful, the required sound change being wishful → *wisful → wistful, which could not occur in Modern English, particularly not with wishful continuing in use. However, the sense of “longing” appears to be influenced by wishful, with wistful being an ambiguous poetic word.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪstfəl/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Adjective

wistful (comparative more wistful, superlative most wistful)

1. Full of longing or yearning.

   His eyes grew wistful as he recalled his university days.

   • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC, page 1:

     Her grey eyes, looking out on the violet of the night sky, the trees, and the crowd of hilarious onlookers who had not been invited to Buckingham Palace, had a patient and wistful expression.

2. Sad and thoughtful.

Derived terms

• wistfully
• wistfulness

Translations

full of longing

• Bulgarian: копнеещ (bg) (kopneešt)
• Danish: længselsfuld, vemodig
• Dutch: droefgeestig (nl), weemoedig (nl), melancholisch (nl)
• Finnish: kaihoisa, haikea (fi)
• French: mélancolique (fr)
• Galician: morriñento, morriñoso, saudoso (gl), melancólico
• German: wehmütig (de)
• Hebrew: כמה (he) (kaméha)
• Icelandic: angurvær, löngunarfullur m
• Italian: malinconico (it), nostalgico (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: whēnako, whēnakonako
• Norwegian: lengselsfull, vemodig (no)
• Persian: حسرتمند (hasratmand)
• Plautdietsch: bangrich
• Portuguese: saudoso (pt), nostálgico, melancólico (pt)
• Russian: тоску́ющий (ru) (toskújuščij), томя́щийся (ru) (tomjáščijsja), тоскли́вый (ru) (tosklívyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: čežnjiv (sh) m, čeznutljiv (sh) m
• Spanish: nostálgico (es)
• Swedish: längtansfull (sv), vemodig (sv)

sad and thoughtful

• Bulgarian: тъжен (bg) (tǎžen), меланхоличен (bg) (melanholičen)
• Finnish: haikea (fi), mietteliäs (fi)
• Hebrew: עגום (he) (agúm), מלנכולי (melankóli)
• Icelandic: angurvær, löngunarfullur m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: vemodig (no)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: заду́мчивый (ru) (zadúmčivyj) (thoughtful), гру́стный (ru) (grústnyj), печа́льный (ru) (pečálʹnyj) (sad)
• Serbo-Croatian: sjetan (sh) m, sjetan (sh) m, setan m
• Spanish: melancólico (es)
• Swedish: vemodig (sv) n, melankolisk (sv) c

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “wistful”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.