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Nostalgia vs Flashback - What's the difference?

nostalgia | flashback |

As nouns the difference between nostalgia and flashback

is that nostalgia is a longing for home or familiar surroundings; homesickness while flashback is a dramatic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological flow of a narrative.

nostalgia

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A longing for home or familiar surroundings; homesickness.
  • A bittersweet yearning for the things of the past.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-16, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • , volume=189, issue=10, page=20, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= This is the cutest article , passage= I can't have been the only person, last week, to feel a rush of nostalgia upon learning that Thames Water had removed a bus-sized, 15-tonne lump of food fat ("mixed with wet wipes") from the sewers under London. The fatberg was an August news story redolent of the old-fashioned silly season.}}
  • Reminiscence of the speaker's childhood or younger years.
  • Derived terms

    * nostalgic * nostalgically

    See also

    * halcyon days * hark back * memory lane * reminiscence ----

    flashback

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • a dramatic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological flow of a narrative
  • (psychology) a vivid mental image of a past trauma, especially one that recurs
  • a similar recurrence of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug
  • the condition of the flame propagating down the hose of an oxy-fuel welding system
  • Synonyms

    * (dramatic device) analepsis

    Coordinate terms

    * (act of remembering) reminiscence

    Derived terms

    * (flame) flashback arrestor

    Descendants

    * German: (l)

    See also

    * flashforward

    Anagrams

    * ----