Grayshift

a spiral staircase from above

Grayshift

n.
the tendency for future goals and benchmarks to feel huge when viewed in advance, only to fade into banality as soon as you’ve achieved them—finally reaching the top of the ladder, only to notice it circling back around like a hamster wheel.

A variation on redshift and blueshift, the astronomical processes that make objects moving away look redder than they really are, and objects moving toward you look bluer.

Ecsis

a hand holding a fossil

Hickering

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

Insoucism

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

Lackout

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

Walloway

water faucet that seems to emanate from the ground

Cullaways

a lone sand castle on a beach at low tide