Candling

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

Candling

v. intr.
the habit of taking stock of your life on the occasion of your birthday—letting it serve as a kind of internal referendum on all your goals and qualities and relationships and accomplishments so far—which makes you want to dress just a little nicer that day, as if you’re standing before a parole board that convenes once a year to adjudicate your release from childhood.

From candling, a method of egg inspection in which an egg is backlit with a candle flame to reveal how the chick is growing, or if it's there at all.

Boorance

a group of objects on a table

Tarrion

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

Walloway

water faucet that seems to emanate from the ground

Vulture Shock

Cover image for the Vulture Shock word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Dystoria

close up of water drops on a window

Aftersome

rows of opaque and clear marbles