Aulasy

a blurry image of a house on the road

Aulasy

n.
the sadness that there’s no way to convey a powerful memory to people who weren’t there at the time—driving past your childhood home to show it to a friend, or pointing at a picture of a loved one you lost, only to realize that to them it’s just another house, just another face.

A contraction of auld lang syne, which is Scots for “times long past”—fragments of which are still present in aulasy, but the meaning has been lost. Pronounced “awl-uh-see.”

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

Aftersome

rows of opaque and clear marbles

Daguerreologue

Daguer-reologue

a man sitting in blurred silhouette at a desk

Archimony

a person looking at broken furniture

Austice

a leaf imprint in the mud

Vellichor

shelves with many books stacked and organized

Halfwise

a train coming towards the camera shot from the tracks

Inerrata

a hand holding a broken cup

Tirosy

a close-up of a young child's face

Pithered

stacks of papers and folders piled high on a table

O’Erpine

a person looking at a grave

Harke

a dreamlike image of a person's face over water

Keyframe

a large rock in the water with emanating ripples

Backmasking

a woman's face with a double exposure

Ecury

a close-up of cave drawings and symbols

Blinkback

a wall full of pictures and objects

Zysia

a kite soaring above an empty landscape

Present-Tense

a close-up of a stopwatch

Ecstatic Shock

Cover image for the Ecstatic Shock word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Tornomov

a cloudy sky and landscape

Ellipsism

a hand clawing at a wall

Ecury

a close-up of cave drawings and symbols

Lockheartedness

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

The Kick Drop

Cover image for the The Kick Drop word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Rasque

close-up of the shards of a broken vase

Mornden

Cover image for the Mornden 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