Wistful
/ˈwɪstfəl/ adj
adj ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Adjective
- 1 Full of longing or yearning.
"His eyes grew wistful as he recalled his university days."
- 2 Sad and thoughtful.
Adjective
- 1 showing pensive sadness wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"He has a wistful look on his face."
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, making wistful an ambiguous poetic word.