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.”

Knellish

a blurry image of a person lying on a bed

Aponemia

a group of people standing together

Drisson

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

Indosentia

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

Affogatia

miscellaneous items on a table

Allope

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