Hemeisis

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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.”

Catoptric Tristesse

Cover image for the Catoptric Tristesse word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Deep Gut

Cover image for the Deep Gut word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Scabulous

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

Midsummer

a person standing in a garden holding a clock

Wenbane

a person standing on a ledge looking at a city skyline

Knellish

a blurry image of a person lying on a bed