Aesthosis

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

Aesthosis

n.
the state of feeling trapped inside your own subjective tastes—not knowing why you find certain things beautiful or ugly, only that you do —wishing you could remove the sociopsychological lenses from your eyes so you could see the beauty in anything and be moved to tears by the smell of burning garbage, the aria of a screaming toddler, or a neon Elvis painted on black velvet.

From aesthetic, concerned with beauty or artistry + orthosis, a brace that artificially straightens a weak or injured part of the body. Pronounced “es-thoh-sis.”

Ecsis

a hand holding a fossil

Exulansis

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

Rialtoscuro

a blurry image of a light source

Keir

a snowy landscape with trees and a fence

The Standard Blues

Cover image for the The Standard Blues word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Trumspringa

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