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.”

Echthesia

blurry image of two clocks

Suerza

a tunnel with a light emanating from the end

Bareleveling

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

Arroia

people standing on a stage

Elsing

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

Tirosy

a close-up of a young child's face