Starlorn

snow flakes in the dark

Starlorn

n.
a sense of loneliness looking up at the night sky, feeling like a castaway marooned in the middle of the ocean, whose currents are steadily carrying off all other castaways—entire worlds and stars whose only remnant is a scrap of light they flung overboard centuries ago, a message in a bottle that’s only just now washing up on our shores.

From star, a luminous dot in the cloudless sky + -lorn, sorely missing. Pronounced “stahr-lawrn.”

Ellipsism

a hand clawing at a wall

Knellish

a blurry image of a person lying on a bed

Rialtoscuro

a blurry image of a light source

Rookish

a stone tower with a person seated on top

Evertheless

a person floating in water

Plata Rasa

Cover image for the Plata Rasa word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Incidental Contact High

Cover image for the Incidental Contact High word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Elosy

a blurry image of a person in a subway car

Nilous

a person standing at a bus terminal

Mogging Folly

a person sitting on a bench

Walloway

water faucet that seems to emanate from the ground

Knellish

a blurry image of a person lying on a bed

Furosha

a storm raging in the sky over a building