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.”

Fensiveness

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

Etterath

a graduation cap and gown on a chair

Addleworth

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

Galagog

a person alone in a snowy desolate landscape

Eftless

a person with hands pressed on a window

Gobo

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