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.

Ecsis

a hand holding a fossil

Maugry

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

Heartworm

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

Lackout

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

Galagog

a person alone in a snowy desolate landscape

Inerrata

a hand holding a broken cup