Vellichor

shelves with many books stacked and organized

Vellichor

n.
the strange wistfulness of used bookstores, which are somehow infused with the passage of time—filled with thousands of old books you’ll never have time to read, each of which is itself locked in its own era, bound and dated and papered over like an old room the author abandoned years ago, a hidden annex littered with thoughts left just as they were on the day they were captured.

From vellum, parchment + ichor, the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Ancient Greek mythology. Pronounced “vel-uh-kawr.”

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

Aftersome

rows of opaque and clear marbles

Daguerreologue

Daguer-reologue

a man sitting in blurred silhouette at a desk

Archimony

a person looking at broken furniture

Austice

a leaf imprint in the mud

Vellichor

shelves with many books stacked and organized

Halfwise

a train coming towards the camera shot from the tracks

Inerrata

a hand holding a broken cup

Tirosy

a close-up of a young child's face

Pithered

stacks of papers and folders piled high on a table

O’Erpine

a person looking at a grave

Harke

a dreamlike image of a person's face over water

Keyframe

a large rock in the water with emanating ripples

Backmasking

a woman's face with a double exposure

Ecury

a close-up of cave drawings and symbols

Blinkback

a wall full of pictures and objects

Zysia

a kite soaring above an empty landscape

Present-Tense

a close-up of a stopwatch

Wollah

a person with shapes raining on them

Elosy

a blurry image of a person in a subway car

Aoyaoia

a person holding a guitar

Skidding

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

Future-Tense

a person looking at their reflection

Redesis

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

Aesthosis

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

Adronitis

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

Foreclearing

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