Elsing

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

Elsing

n.
the unconscious habit of looking at someone and seeing only a cartoon of what they represent to you, their face obscured by a superimposed image of someone else entirely—your mother, your school bully, or yourself in another time—which makes you wonder what others must see when they look at you from across the room.

From else. Pronounced “el-sing.”

Bye-Over

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Heartspur

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Aubadoir

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Archimony

a person looking at broken furniture

Los Vidados

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Anaphasia

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