Obscure Sorrows
Disclaimer: This post wasn't sponsored, I just really like the dictionary
Have you ever felt a feeling of nostalgia for the times that never were? Or have you ever experienced the weird hollowness of trying to imagine the distant future? If you have, like me, thought about these odd things ever in your life, you'd be amazed that a dictionary about these "obscure sorrows" exists!
While reminiscing about life, I became nostalgic for the things that never actually happened or had the chance to happen. Then I wondered, had anyone else felt like this before? Is there a word to express this obscure feeling?
Then I discovered the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It's an online and book dictionary on these types of words. For example, did you know that the moment you look around and realize that you’re currently happy is called kairosclerosis?
I feel like even with the thousands of languages that exist and are being used currently, there aren't enough words for us. To explain those really rare and obscure feelings, moments, and states. That's why the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is such a fun and interesting concept to me. It combines words from different languages such as Greek, Latin, German, Spanish, etc into one new word. It's almost as if it explains the things that aren't meant to be explained.
But like John Koenig (the dictionary's author) says in the About page of the dictionary, words can never do the justice of explaining our emotions. Emotions are a hard and complex thing to talk about, but we still have to try. Because how would we know each other if we didn't know how we felt?
From what I've understood and read so far, the dictionary is split into chapters and concepts. All of which aren't easy to understand. I'd need to block away some time to fully understand the big picture.
You can read more on the history of the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows here and read the dictionary here.
By the way, if were curious, the words (and concepts) from the beginning of the blog post are anemoia and tornomov.
Until next time!
Day 33 of #100DaysToOffload