Wollah

a person with shapes raining on them

Wollah

n.
something you’ve misunderstood for years without knowing it—a familiar word with a weird pronunciation, a favorite saying that means the opposite of what you thought, a well-known factoid that was disproven years ago while you weren’t looking—making you want to stress-test the foundations of your understanding of reality.

A mispronunciation of the French voilà, “behold!” Pronounced “wawl-uh.”

Adomania

a person riding a horse

Aponemia

a group of people standing together

Kadot

a person looking at an abstract spiral

Craxis

a tall house of cards

Hem-Jawed

an abstract image of someone touching their face

Nilous

a person standing at a bus terminal

Furosha

a storm raging in the sky over a building

Dystoria

close up of water drops on a window

Evertheless

a person floating in water

Starlorn

snow flakes in the dark

Tornomov

a cloudy sky and landscape

Ecsis

a hand holding a fossil

Grayshift

a spiral staircase from above

Karanoia

a neat stack of white paper

Winnewaw

a person wearing a party hat

Irrition

a close up of a dandelion

Ironsick

a group of random devices

Achenia

a close-up of a bottle with an organic object inside

Merrenness

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

The Mcfly Effect

Cover image for the The Mcfly Effect word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Midding

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

Thrapt

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

Ameneurosis

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

Scrough

a person working on the sidewalk

Poggled

a person studying a book with a magnifying glass

Ecsis

a hand holding a fossil

Austice

a leaf imprint in the mud