Longing
Etymology
From Old English "langian," “to yearn after, grieve for,” which is built on the same root as "long" (great in length). The connection is temporal and physical: to long for something is to feel time and distance grow long between you and it. The wanting literally stretches you toward what’s far away.
noun · /LAWNG-ing/
A persistent, often bittersweet yearning for someone or something absent.
What it names
Reach for it for desire stretched over distance or time — wanting that aches precisely because the thing is out of reach.
Example
A sudden longing for her grandmother’s kitchen washed over her at the smell of cardamom.
Related idea
Longing overlaps with the list’s existing exotics but sits between them: unlike nostalgia (aimed at a real past), longing can reach for something you never had; unlike German Sehnsucht (an ache for an undefined ideal), everyday longing usually has an object — a person, a place, a taste — even if that object is gone.