In class, I was told that ホームシック is a noun, not a な-adjective.

```

    ホームシックの時、何をしますか。
    
```

By contrast, the closest English word to "ホームシック", which is "homesick", is an
adjective.

Why is ホームシック a noun? Is it describing a disease (if you had to use English,
you might say "homesickness"), rather than the state of having the disease?
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question
loanwords na-adjectives nouns
Why is ホームシック a noun, not a な-adjective?
ホームシック is understood as describing the state of being homesick. You can
parallel it with 病気 (as in ホームシックになる vs. 病気になる, ホームシックの時 vs. 病気の時), but being
perceived as a noun doesn't imply that it is describing a disease.

メタボ (derived from メタボリックシンドローム{metabolic syndrome}) appears to be used both as
noun and as _na_ -adjective, e.g. メタボの人 vs. メタボな人.

Moreover, I think that _na_ -adjectives characterize something as having
permanently a certain property, whereas characterizing with の implies a more
temporary property.

> メタボの人 sounds more like someone who _at the moment_ suffers from metabolic
> disorder.
>
> メタボな人 sounds more like someone who "has" metabolic syndrome.

Since ホームシック is definitely temporary, ホームシックの sounds more natural. ホームシックな人
sounds a little like an oxymoron.
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answer
First of all, it's worth noting that Japanese has no 形容詞 or 形容動詞(な-adjective)
which directly corresponds to the English adjective _sick_. (although you can
say 「彼の具合【ぐあい】が悪【わる】い 」, if you don't mind replacing the subject)

We can say 「彼 は [病名] だ」、「[病名] の 人」、「 [病名] に なる」、where [病名] can be 癌 (cancer),
肺炎 (pneumonia), 糖尿病 (diabetes), 骨粗鬆症 (osteoporosis), or 病気 (disease) in
general. And they are all nouns. We usually cannot say 「 [病名] な 人」, so 「癌な人」
or 「糖尿病な人」 is wrong.

I think that's why we often treat the loanword ホームシック also as a noun. Words
such as _lovesick_ or _airsick_ have no corresponding adjectives either in
Japanese; instead we have nouns 恋煩【こいわずら】い (love sickness) or 飛行機酔【ひこうきよ】い
(air sickness).

That said, I think this rule is somewhat loosened if certain 外来語 diseases are
concerned. In fact, **both 「ホームシックな時」 and 「メタボな人」 sound as natural as
「ホームシックの時」 and 「メタボの人」 to me**. Japanese tend to create many な-adjectives from
English adjectives, as in スマートな, リスキーな, etc. They can even create な-adjectives
from English nouns, such as
[ワンパターンな](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%83%AF%E3%83%B3%E3%83%91%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3),
ハイリスクな. I see no reason why _homesick_ cannot act as a な-adjective as well as
a noun.

Lastly, some people may argue that Japanese young people use "病気な人", or more
commonly, "ビョーキな人". Such use of 病気 is a slang and [has a special
meaning](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%97%85%E6%B0%97) (abnormal, crazy,
mad). Use "病気の人" for someone with a real medical disorder.
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answer