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.”

Wenbane

a person standing on a ledge looking at a city skyline

Hobsmacked

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

Star-Stuck

a man walking towards a door with a large question mark

Burn Upon Reentry

Cover image for the Burn Upon Reentry word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Covalent Bond

Cover image for the Covalent Bond word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Pâro

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

Nullness

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

Xeno

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

Eigenschauung

Eigen-schauung

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

Latigo

aerial view of a city at night

Scrough

a person working on the sidewalk

Alpha Exposure

a close-up of a baby with diffusion filter

Adomania

a person riding a horse

Solysium

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

Appriesse

a blurry image of a person looking at mounted images

Kenaway

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

Nodrophobia

close-up of a stained shirt

Harmonoia

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

Nilous

a person standing at a bus terminal

Austice

a leaf imprint in the mud