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Origin and history of wistful

wistful(adj.)

1610s, perhaps but not certainly meaning "closely attentive" (in a verse line about songs that "should charm the sweet dale and wistfull hill."). The meaning "longingly pensive, musing" is attested by 1714.

It is perhaps from obsolete wistly "intently" (c. 1500), which is of uncertain origin. Perhaps it was formed on the model of wishful, but it is not considered to be a variant of it. It seems unrelated to wist (v.).

Middle English wistful meant "bountiful, well-supplied," from Old English wist "provisions." Related: Wistfully; wistfulness.

also from 1610s

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pensive
late 14c., pensif, "sad, sorrowful, melancholy;" also "engaged in serious thought, meditative, contemplative;" from Old French pensif "thoughtful, distracted, musing" (11c.), from penser "to think," from Latin pensare "weigh, consider," frequentative of pendere "to hang, cause to
minor
Of triads or chords by 1797; their emotional effect is notable mournful, mysterious, gloomy, or wistful, hence figurative...
nostalgia
.: 1867] Transferred sense (the main modern one) of "wistful yearning for the past" is recorded by 1920, perhaps from such...
wist
"to know" (archaic), c. 1500, from Old English past tense of witan "to know" (cognate with German wusste, past tense of wissen "to know"); see wit. Had-I-wiste was used c. 1400-1550 in sense "regret for something done rashly or heedlessly;" see wist. Proverbial in expression Had-
dismay
c. 1300, dismaien, "become or be alarmed, upset, or frightened; to confound, break down the courage of by danger or difficulty or fear of calamity, fill with despairing apprehension;" perhaps formed in Anglo-French or Middle English from dis-, here probably intensive (see dis-),
copacetic
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insinuate
1520s, "to covertly and subtly introduce into the mind or heart" (trans.), from Latin insinuatus, past participle of insinuare "to thrust in, push in, make a way; creep in, intrude, bring in by windings and curvings, wind one's way into," from in- "in" (from PIE root *en "in") +
retreat
c. 1300, retrete, "a step backward;" late 14c., "act of retiring or withdrawing; military signal for retiring from action or exercise," from Old French retret, retrait, noun use of past participle of retrere "draw back," from Latin retrahere "draw back, withdraw, call back," from
sacrament
late Old English, in Christian use, "an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace," especially "a sacrament of the Church, one of the religious ceremonies enjoined by Christ or the Church," and later specifically "the sacrament of the Eucharist" (c. 1300), from Old F
meme
"an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture," 1976, introduced by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene," coined by him from Greek sources, such as mimeisthai "to imitate" (see mime (n.)), and intended to echo gene. We n

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