Cullaways

a lone sand castle on a beach at low tide

Cullaways

n.
the scattering of memories that your brain is actively forgetting at any given moment, erasing them one by one with no input from you and no knowledge that it’s happening at all—which means that when you wake up in the morning, your past will feel imperceptibly altered, with no trace of what you ate last week, a party you attended ten years ago, or the first real conversation you had with your grandfather.

From cull, to control the size of a herd by selectively killing some animals + away. Pronounced “kuhl-uh-weys.”

Enterhood

adults with stern expressions holding a child

Pithered

stacks of papers and folders piled high on a table

Echthesia

blurry image of two clocks

Lisolia

a bookcase containing objects

Tirosy

a close-up of a young child's face

Alpha Exposure

a close-up of a baby with diffusion filter

Ecury

a close-up of cave drawings and symbols

Yeorie

a woman with tendrils of smoke moving across her face

Énouement

a hand opening a curtain

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

Appriesse

a blurry image of a person looking at mounted images

Daguerreologue

Daguer-reologue

a man sitting in blurred silhouette at a desk

Emorries

a magnifying glass over photos and books

Archimony

a person looking at broken furniture

Blinkback

a wall full of pictures and objects

Walloway

water faucet that seems to emanate from the ground

Zysia

a kite soaring above an empty landscape

Anticious

a group of men in hats looking at elevated signage

Hobsmacked

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

Ecury

a close-up of cave drawings and symbols

Thrapt

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

Mogging Folly

a person sitting on a bench

Amuse-Douche

Cover image for the Amuse-Douche word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Occhiolism

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

Foreclearing

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

Allope

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

Incidental Contact High

Cover image for the Incidental Contact High word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows