Ringlorn

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

Ringlorn

adj.
the wish that the modern world felt as epic as the one depicted in old stories and folktales—a place of tragedy and transcendence, of oaths and omens and fates, where everyday life felt like a quest for glory, a mythic bond with an ancient past, or a battle for survival against a clear enemy, rather than an open-ended parlor game where all the rules are made up and the points don’t matter.

From ring, a key element in many sagas and myths + -lorn, sorely missing. Pronounced “ring- lawrn.”

Vulture Shock

Cover image for the Vulture Shock word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

The Meantime

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

Leidenfreude

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

Altschmerz

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

Inerrata

a hand holding a broken cup

Poggled

a person studying a book with a magnifying glass