Wytai

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

Wytai

n.
a feature of modern civilization that suddenly strikes you as absurd and grotesque—from pets and milk drinking to organ transplants, life insurance, and fiction—part of a rich legacy of absurdity that dates all the way back to the moment our ancestors first hauled themselves out of the slime, but could not for the life of them remember what they got up to do.

Acronym of When You Think About It. Pronounced “wahy-tahy.”

Backmasking

a woman's face with a double exposure

Immerensis

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

Kerisl

piles of old books scattered in an abandoned room

Lap Year

several people racing bicycles uphill in a forest

Povism

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

Ironsick

a group of random devices