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.”

Future-Tense

a person looking at their reflection

Sayfish

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

Zysia

a kite soaring above an empty landscape

Inerrata

a hand holding a broken cup

The Giltwrights

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

Craxis

a tall house of cards