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.”

Rivener

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

Kenaway

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

Leidenfreude

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

Elsing

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

Grayshift

a spiral staircase from above

Pâro

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