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

Gobo

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

Fitzcarraldo

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

Chrysalism

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

Aubadoir

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

Zielschmerz

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

La Cuna

Cover image for the La Cuna 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

Ghough

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

Gobo

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

Harmonoia

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

Funkenzwangsvorstellung

Funkenzwang-svorstellung

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

Foreclearing

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

Incidental Contact High

Cover image for the Incidental Contact High word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Clockwise

a close-up of flower along with polaroid pictures

Hem-Jawed

an abstract image of someone touching their face

Nowlings

a pile of black and white puzzle pieces

Fygophobia

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

Thrapt

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

Fellchaser

a blurred shadow of a person in a dark room

Knellish

a blurry image of a person lying on a bed

Nilous

a person standing at a bus terminal

Offtides

close-up of a chromed metal object

Routwash

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

Incidental Contact High

Cover image for the Incidental Contact High word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Moledro

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

Harmonoia

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

Ochisia

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