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.”

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

The Meantime

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

Tillid

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

Kuebiko

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

Foilsick

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

Kadot

a person looking at an abstract spiral