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.”

Arroia

people standing on a stage

Amentalio

a person in a white dress, facing away

Leidenfreude

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

Inerrata

a hand holding a broken cup

Heart Of Aces

a person covering their eyes with their hands

Karanoia

a neat stack of white paper