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.”

Innity

a neatly made bed with diffused light glowing

Foilsick

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

Siso

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

Aoyaoia

a person holding a guitar

The Whipgraft Delusion

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

Yeorie

a woman with tendrils of smoke moving across her face