Ecsis

a hand holding a fossil

Ecsis

n.
the haunting sense of mystery infused into certain random details that beckons you to wonder how it ended up here at this point in time—marveling at a patch of white on a dog’s chest, a bubble trapped in an old window, a glimpse of Saturn’s rings shivering in a telescope lens—knowing that behind the thing itself is a long chain of causes and effects that veers off into the shadows of prehistory, anchored somewhere near the dawn of time, even though the end result is somehow right there in front of you, shimmering in place.

Indonesian eksis, to exist, to be. Pronounced “ek-sis.”

Emodox

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

Scrough

a person working on the sidewalk

Semaphorism

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

Amoransia

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

Aponemia

a group of people standing together

Present-Tense

a close-up of a stopwatch