Solysium

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

Solysium

n.
the unhinged delirium of being alone for an extended period of time— feeling the hours stretch into days until a weird little culture begins to form inside your head, with its own superstitions and alternate histories and a half-mumbled dialect all your own—whose freewheeling absurdity feels oddly liberating but makes it that much harder to reacclimate to the strictures and ambiguities of normal social life.

From solitary, being by oneself + asylum, a sanctuary for the mentally ill + Elysium, the Ancient Greek equivalent of heaven. Pronounced “soh-lee-zee-uhm.”

Siso

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

Midsummer

a person standing in a garden holding a clock

The Kinder Surprise

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

Allope

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

Gobo

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

Nowlings

a pile of black and white puzzle pieces