Anecdoche

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

Anecdoche

n.
a conversation in which everyone is talking but nobody is listening— instead merely overlaying words like a spoken game of Scrabble, each player borrowing bits of others’ anecdotes to build out their own, until we reach a point when we all run out of things to say.

From anecdote, a short and often amusing account of real-life events + synecdoche, a figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole. Pronounced “uh-nek-doh-kee.”

Anchorage

a person's arm extended over river rapids

Hemeisis

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

Lisolia

a bookcase containing objects

Monachopsis

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

Nighthawk

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

Inerrata

a hand holding a broken cup