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.”

Mithenness

a person standing on the side of a road

Fata Organa

Cover image for the Fata Organa word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Aulasy

a blurry image of a house on the road

Mogging Folly

a person sitting on a bench

Semaphorism

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

Bareleveling

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