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.

Looseleft

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

Merrenness

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

Walloway

water faucet that seems to emanate from the ground

Anaphasia

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

Nemotia

a city with clouds of smoke

Fitching

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