Eisce

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

Eisce

n.
the awareness of the infinitesimal role you play in shaping your own society—knowing that whenever you smile at a stranger, pronounce a word a certain way, laugh at a certain joke, or choose the slightly shinier apple, you are unwittingly helping to construct the world in which you live—a role both vanishingly small but also somehow daunting, making it that much harder to complain about the traffic, knowing that you are traffic.

Irish eisceacht, exception. Pronounced “ahy-shuh.”

Anti-Aliasing

Cover image for the Anti-Aliasing word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Catoptric Tristesse

Cover image for the Catoptric Tristesse word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Monachopsis

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

Wytai

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

Amuse-Douche

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

Innity

a neatly made bed with diffused light glowing

Lockheartedness

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

Kinchy

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

Kuebiko

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

Momophobia

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

Gaudia Civis

a close-up of a gear

Hailbound

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

Allope

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

Eisce

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

The Unsharp Mask

a mirror with a reflection of a person

Anecdoche

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

Adronitis

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

Aftergloom

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

Solysium

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

Mottleheaded

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

Scrough

a person working on the sidewalk

The Giltwrights

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

Fawtle

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

Dolorblindness

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

Craxis

a tall house of cards

Foreclearing

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

Fitzcarraldo

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