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.

Ellipsism

a hand clawing at a wall

Knellish

a blurry image of a person lying on a bed

Rialtoscuro

a blurry image of a light source

Rookish

a stone tower with a person seated on top

Lockheartedness

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

Thrapt

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

Ellipsism

a hand clawing at a wall

Rückkehrunruhe

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

Angosis

a table full of food

Wytai

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

Karanoia

a neat stack of white paper

Beloiter

a person sitting at a slot machine

Knellish

a blurry image of a person lying on a bed