Waldosia

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

Waldosia

n.
a condition in which you keep scanning faces in a crowd looking for a specific person who would have no reason to be there, as if your brain is checking to see whether they’re still in your life, subconsciously patting its emotional pockets before it leaves for the day.

From the Where’s Waldo? series of picture books, or in some countries, Where’s Wally?, in which the reader tries to spot one specific person somewhere in a massive crowd. Pronounced “wawl-doh-zhuh” or “wawl-doh-see-uh.”

Etherness

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Heartworm

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Querinous

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Foilsick

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Sitheless

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Immerensis

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Dorgone

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Attriage

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Fata Organa

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Hanker Sore

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Ochisia

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Mottleheaded

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Los Vidados

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Flashover

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Waldosia

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Lookaback

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Lackout

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Leidenfreude

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Midsummer

a person standing in a garden holding a clock

Monachopsis

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Kairosclerosis

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The Unsharp Mask

a mirror with a reflection of a person

Amoransia

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Querinous

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Aoyaoia

a person holding a guitar

Karanoia

a neat stack of white paper