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

Skidding

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

Covalent Bond

Cover image for the Covalent Bond word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Ne’er-Be-Gone

Cover image for the Ne’er-Be-Gone word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Hickering

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

Cullaways

a lone sand castle on a beach at low tide

Fitching

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

Sitheless

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

Galagog

a person alone in a snowy desolate landscape

Walloway

water faucet that seems to emanate from the ground