Caucic

a close-up of a stone walking path

Caucic

adj.
afraid that the rest of your life is already laid out in front of you, that you’re being swept inexorably along a series of predictable milestones—from school to graduation to career to marriage to kids to retirement to death—which makes you wish you could pull off to the side of the road for a little while, to stretch your legs and spread out the map so you can double-check that you’re headed the right way.

Middle English cauci, path or road + caustic, able to burn or corrode living tissue. Pronounced “kaw-sik.”

Los Vidados

Cover image for the Los Vidados word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Kerisl

piles of old books scattered in an abandoned room

Foilsick

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

Lilo

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

Winnewaw

a person wearing a party hat

Covalent Bond

Cover image for the Covalent Bond word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows