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.”

Liberosis

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

Zverism

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

Mimeomia

a person wearing an animal onesie garment

Keta

a hand reaching through paper with a flower drawing

Heart Of Aces

a person covering their eyes with their hands

Ecury

a close-up of cave drawings and symbols