Wanderlust is a loanword from German to English that designates a strong desire for or impulse to wander, or, in modern usage, to travel and to explore the world.

Etymology

The word came into English in 1875 or 1902 as a reflection of what was then seen as a characteristically German predilection for wandering that may be traced back to German romanticism and the German system of apprenticeship. The word is a compound of wandern, "to wander" and Lust, "desire, pleasure" and one of the relatively few German loanwords to the English language.

In German the term has become somewhat obsolete. A more contemporary equivalent for the English wanderlust in the sense of "love of travel" would be Fernweh (literally "an ache for the distance").

The initial of the term is always capitalized in German ("Wanderlust") but usually written in lower case in English ("wanderlust").

References