Nilous

a person standing at a bus terminal

Nilous

adj.
anxious to imagine how many times you must’ve barely avoided catastrophe—the morning you missed the bus that later went on to crash, the day you stayed onshore when it was a bit too rough out there—which makes it feel like something of a fluke that you’ve survived this long, as if you’re on an unbroken streak of coin flips, heads after heads after heads, wondering when your luck is going to run out.

Old English nigh, almost + nihil, nothing. Pronounced “nahy-lis.”

Mogging Folly

a person sitting on a bench

Offtides

close-up of a chromed metal object

Arroia

people standing on a stage

Nilous

a person standing at a bus terminal

Ecsis

a hand holding a fossil

Craxis

a tall house of cards

Achenia

a close-up of a bottle with an organic object inside

Grayshift

a spiral staircase from above

Tornomov

a cloudy sky and landscape

Hem-Jawed

an abstract image of someone touching their face

Ellipsism

a hand clawing at a wall

Suerza

a tunnel with a light emanating from the end

Nemotia

a city with clouds of smoke

Evertheless

a person floating in water

Ironsick

a group of random devices

Moriturism

a person resting in the back seat of a car

Wollah

a person with shapes raining on them

Karanoia

a neat stack of white paper

Lookaback

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

Lockheartedness

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

The Mcfly Effect

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

Covalent Bond

Cover image for the Covalent Bond word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Evertheless

a person floating in water

On Tenderhooks

Cover image for the On Tenderhooks word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Walloway

water faucet that seems to emanate from the ground

Harke

a dreamlike image of a person's face over water

Backmasking

a woman's face with a double exposure