Monachopsis

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

Monachopsis

n.
the subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place, as maladapted to your surroundings as a seal on a beach, lumbering and clumsy, huddled in the company of other misfits, dreaming of life in your natural habitat, a place where you’d be fluidly, brilliantly, effortlessly at home.

Ancient Greek μοναχός (monakhós), single, solitary + ὄψις (ópsis), vision. Pronounced “mon-uh-kop-sis.”

Aubadoir

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

Midsummer

a person standing in a garden holding a clock

Thwit

close-up of a person with forehead wrinkled and holding their head

Daguerreologue

Daguer-reologue

a man sitting in blurred silhouette at a desk

Keir

a snowy landscape with trees and a fence

Harke

a dreamlike image of a person's face over water