Dolorblindness

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

Dolorblindness

n.
the frustration that you’ll never be able to understand another person’s pain, only ever searching their face for some faint evocation of it, then rifling through your own experiences for some slapdash comparison, wishing you could tell them truthfully, “I know exactly how you feel.”

Latin dolor, pain + colorblindness. Pronounced “doh-ler-blahynd-nis.”

Aponemia

a group of people standing together

Cullaways

a lone sand castle on a beach at low tide

Redesis

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

Foreclearing

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

Anticious

a group of men in hats looking at elevated signage

Appriesse

a blurry image of a person looking at mounted images