Querinous

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

Querinous

adj.
longing for a sense of certainty in a relationship; wishing there were some way to know ahead of time whether this is the person you’re going to wake up next to for twenty thousand mornings in a row, instead of having to count them out one by one, quietly hoping your streak continues.

Mandarin 确 认 (quèrèn), confirmation. Twenty thousand days is roughly fifty-five years. Pronounced “kweh-ruh-nuhs.”

Proluctance

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

Keir

a snowy landscape with trees and a fence

Ochisia

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

Kerisl

piles of old books scattered in an abandoned room

Appriesse

a blurry image of a person looking at mounted images

Grayshift

a spiral staircase from above