Lookaback

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

Lookaback

n.
the shock of meeting back up with someone and learning that your mental image of them had fallen wildly out of date—having grown up or gotten old, fallen apart or pulled themselves together—which shakes your faith in the accuracy of the social puppet show that runs continuously inside your head.

From look back + taken aback, taken by surprise.

The Wends

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

Grayshift

a spiral staircase from above

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

Allope

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

Povism

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

Mogging Folly

a person sitting on a bench