Hemeisis

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

Hemeisis

n.
the off-putting awareness of how deeply your culture’s norms are ingrained in your psyche—arbitrarily defining what you find shameful and admirable, private and communal, attractive and repulsive, fair and unfair—as if you’d been programmed in a way that you can’t control or even perceive, until you happen to encounter someone who has slightly different code.

Ancient Greek ἡμεῖς (hēmeîs), we (excluding the listener). Pronounced “hem-ey-sis.”

Evertheless

a person floating in water

Wenbane

a person standing on a ledge looking at a city skyline

Yeorie

a woman with tendrils of smoke moving across her face

La Gaudière

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Nodrophobia

close-up of a stained shirt

Indosentia

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