Rasque

close-up of the shards of a broken vase

Rasque

n.
a moment you instantly wish you could take back, feeling a pulse of dread right after crossing the point of no return—a blurted confession, a hurled insult, a final decision you’d been waffling over for months— wanting to take just one step backward in time, reverting to the way things used to be, in the halcyon days of just a minute ago.

From rue, to regret + bourrasque, a tempest. Pronounced “rask.”

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

Aftersome

rows of opaque and clear marbles

Daguerreologue

Daguer-reologue

a man sitting in blurred silhouette at a desk

Archimony

a person looking at broken furniture

Austice

a leaf imprint in the mud

Vellichor

shelves with many books stacked and organized

Halfwise

a train coming towards the camera shot from the tracks

Inerrata

a hand holding a broken cup

Tirosy

a close-up of a young child's face

Pithered

stacks of papers and folders piled high on a table

O’Erpine

a person looking at a grave

Harke

a dreamlike image of a person's face over water

Keyframe

a large rock in the water with emanating ripples

Backmasking

a woman's face with a double exposure

Ecury

a close-up of cave drawings and symbols

Blinkback

a wall full of pictures and objects

Zysia

a kite soaring above an empty landscape

Present-Tense

a close-up of a stopwatch

Altschmerz

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

Fellchaser

a blurred shadow of a person in a dark room

Galagog

a person alone in a snowy desolate landscape

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

Hem-Jawed

an abstract image of someone touching their face

Eigenschauung

Eigen-schauung

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

Future-Tense

a person looking at their reflection

Cullaways

a lone sand castle on a beach at low tide

Ne’er-Be-Gone

Cover image for the Ne’er-Be-Gone word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows