Eisce

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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.”

Nullness

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Amuse-Douche

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Momophobia

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Anaphasia

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Burn Upon Reentry

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Adronitis

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Hemeisis

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Mimeomia

a person wearing an animal onesie garment

Hobsmacked

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Poggled

a person studying a book with a magnifying glass

Hailbound

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Etterath

a graduation cap and gown on a chair

Elosy

a blurry image of a person in a subway car

Wenbane

a person standing on a ledge looking at a city skyline

Fensiveness

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Affogatia

miscellaneous items on a table

Solysium

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Trueholding

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Skidding

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

Lisolia

a bookcase containing objects