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.”

Rasque

close-up of the shards of a broken vase

Ellipsism

a hand clawing at a wall

Lilo

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

Aponemia

a group of people standing together

Etterath

a graduation cap and gown on a chair

Fygophobia

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