Starlorn

snow flakes in the dark

Starlorn

n.
a sense of loneliness looking up at the night sky, feeling like a castaway marooned in the middle of the ocean, whose currents are steadily carrying off all other castaways—entire worlds and stars whose only remnant is a scrap of light they flung overboard centuries ago, a message in a bottle that’s only just now washing up on our shores.

From star, a luminous dot in the cloudless sky + -lorn, sorely missing. Pronounced “stahr-lawrn.”

Mogging Folly

a person sitting on a bench

Offtides

close-up of a chromed metal object

Arroia

people standing on a stage

Nilous

a person standing at a bus terminal

Ecsis

a hand holding a fossil

Craxis

a tall house of cards

Achenia

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

Grayshift

a spiral staircase from above

Tornomov

a cloudy sky and landscape

Hem-Jawed

an abstract image of someone touching their face

Ellipsism

a hand clawing at a wall

Suerza

a tunnel with a light emanating from the end

Nemotia

a city with clouds of smoke

Evertheless

a person floating in water

Ironsick

a group of random devices

Moriturism

a person resting in the back seat of a car

Wollah

a person with shapes raining on them

Karanoia

a neat stack of white paper

Keir

a snowy landscape with trees and a fence

Sayfish

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

Watashiato

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

Addleworth

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

Karanoia

a neat stack of white paper

Craxis

a tall house of cards

Lilo

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

Hickering

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

Harke

a dreamlike image of a person's face over water