The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

The word sadness originally meant fullness," to be filled to the brim with some intensity of experience. It's not about despair, or distraction, or controlling how you're supposed to feel, it's about awareness. Setting the focus to infinity and taking it all in, joy and grief all at once; feeling the world as it is, the word as it could be. The unknown and the unknowable, closeness and distance and trust, and the passage of time. And all the others around you who are each going through the same thing.

The Romans called it lacrimae rerum, the "tears of things." We call them obscure sorrows.

"I read the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything."

—Steven Wright

Wildred

Cover image for the Wildred word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Fitzcarraldo

Cover image for the Fitzcarraldo word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Slipfast

Cover image for the Slipfast word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Occhiolism

Cover image for the Occhiolism word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Elsewise

Cover image for the Elsewise word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Jouska

Cover image for the Jouska word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Foreclearing

Cover image for the Foreclearing word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Zielschmerz

Cover image for the Zielschmerz word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Ne’er-Be-Gone

Cover image for the Ne’er-Be-Gone word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Wildred

Cover image for the Wildred word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Treachery Of The Common

Cover image for the Treachery Of The Common word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Gobo

Cover image for the Gobo word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Mornden

Cover image for the Mornden word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Allope

Cover image for the Allope word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Feresy

Cover image for the Feresy word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Nowlings

a pile of black and white puzzle pieces

Etherness

Cover image for the Etherness word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Lookaback

Cover image for the Lookaback word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Backmasking

a woman's face with a double exposure

Xeno

Cover image for the Xeno word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Aimonomia

close-up of a plant with lights glowing in background

Ecsis

a hand holding a fossil

Soufrise

Cover image for the Soufrise word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Kairosclerosis

Cover image for the Kairosclerosis word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Future-Tense

a person looking at their reflection

Wytai

Cover image for the Wytai word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Lyssamania

Cover image for the Lyssamania word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows