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.”

Wollah

a person with shapes raining on them

Ellipsism

a hand clawing at a wall

Nodrophobia

close-up of a stained shirt

Craxis

a tall house of cards

Tornomov

a cloudy sky and landscape

Eftless

a person with hands pressed on a window

Kadot

a person looking at an abstract spiral

Beloiter

a person sitting at a slot machine

Aoyaoia

a person holding a guitar

Karanoia

a neat stack of white paper

Nilous

a person standing at a bus terminal

Arroia

people standing on a stage

Ecsis

a hand holding a fossil

Hem-Jawed

an abstract image of someone touching their face

Dystoria

close up of water drops on a window

Rialtoscuro

a blurry image of a light source

Suerza

a tunnel with a light emanating from the end

Moriturism

a person resting in the back seat of a car

Burn Upon Reentry

Cover image for the Burn Upon Reentry word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Candling

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

Mauerbauertraurigkeit

Mauerbauer-traurigkeit

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

Future-Tense

a person looking at their reflection

Eisce

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

Beloiter

a person sitting at a slot machine

Anticious

a group of men in hats looking at elevated signage

Grayshift

a spiral staircase from above

Los Vidados

Cover image for the Los Vidados word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows