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.”

Enterhood

adults with stern expressions holding a child

Pithered

stacks of papers and folders piled high on a table

Echthesia

blurry image of two clocks

Lisolia

a bookcase containing objects

Tirosy

a close-up of a young child's face

Alpha Exposure

a close-up of a baby with diffusion filter

Ecury

a close-up of cave drawings and symbols

Yeorie

a woman with tendrils of smoke moving across her face

Énouement

a hand opening a curtain

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

Appriesse

a blurry image of a person looking at mounted images

Daguerreologue

Daguer-reologue

a man sitting in blurred silhouette at a desk

Emorries

a magnifying glass over photos and books

Archimony

a person looking at broken furniture

Blinkback

a wall full of pictures and objects

Walloway

water faucet that seems to emanate from the ground

Zysia

a kite soaring above an empty landscape

Anticious

a group of men in hats looking at elevated signage

Tornomov

a cloudy sky and landscape

The Kinder Surprise

Cover image for the The Kinder Surprise word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Los Vidados

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

Offtides

close-up of a chromed metal object

Dystoria

close up of water drops on a window

Looseleft

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

The Wends

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

Cullaways

a lone sand castle on a beach at low tide

Leidenfreude

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