La Cuna

Cover image for the La Cuna word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

La Cuna

n.
a twinge of sadness that there’s no frontier left, that as the last explorer trudged his armies toward the last blank spot on the map, he didn’t suddenly turn for home, leaving one last island unexplored so we could set it aside as a strategic reserve of mystery.

Latin lacuna, an unfilled space or hole + Spanish la cuna, cradle. Pronounced “lah koo-nuh.”

Grayshift

a spiral staircase from above

Leidenfreude

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

Kadot

a person looking at an abstract spiral

Evertheless

a person floating in water

The Giltwrights

Cover image for the The Giltwrights word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Plata Rasa

Cover image for the Plata Rasa word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows