The human mind is complicated and wondrous; we are able to experience such deep and complex emotions. Some of our emotional perceptions are so vivid and awesome that they can literally stop you in your tracks and cause you to re-organize your beliefs, so life can make sense again.
Here is a list of emotions you may have felt but could not describe with one single word, until now.
It would be pretty cool if we could unleash these words from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and begin using them more commonly, although I’m sure most people would simply nod, then rush home to look up the dictionary definition for next time.
7 obscure emotions and their meanings
1. Onism
The feeling that in your whole life you’ll only get to experience a little piece of the wide, wide world. Past world explorers and cartographers would often sense this feeling.
2. Avenior
You are always moving forward in your life, but you only have past experiences and memories as a guide. You only know where you’ve been, not where you’re going – or what the future holds. So instead of moving into the unknown, you wish to see your memories in advance so you can make the right decisions.
3. Klexos
What’s happened has happened, there’s no re-scripting your past. But when you study your past experiences, you can continue to draw much meaning from them for years and years to come as you mature. With age and wisdom, you develop the art of Klexos and use the past as a teacher, drawing rich insights into yourself and the universe. With time: “You can flip your greatest shame into the source of your greatest power.”
4. Zenosyne
As a child, you lived in the moment and time felt like it was moving in slow motion. Yet, as the years roll by, time feels like a spiral — it circles and quickens. Soon, the years seem to flash by, you have an overwhelming sense that you can no longer take things for granted, and each moment is so, so precious.
5. Lachesism
This is an emotion that only comfortable, privileged people would feel, I’m pretty sure. It’s when you wish for a disaster in your life so that your life’s steady path can get a little shake-up. You want to feel like you’ve really been through some “times.” I once met a young traveler in Nicaragua who was hoping that the volcano in the center of the small island we were on would erupt after we felt some earth tremors — we, however, felt the opposite way and evacuated on the next boat. Thus, he was perhaps lachesistic? Is that a word?
6. Koinophobia
When you started out you had tall dreams and aspirations of what your life may bring. In retrospect though, your life seems common and ordinary. You worry that your life did not make it beyond mediocrity and that it was less meaningful or unique than you would have hoped.
7. Ambedo
You have a sense that there is something more to your life, some “holy grail” of meaning and value hiding just below the surface. Yet, the more you try to grasp it in your hands, the more obscure it becomes and it dissolves back into its shapeless form. So you decide to settle back into your passenger seat and simply enjoy the ride, experiencing simple things for their own sake.
When next you are feeling philosophical, listless, or humbled by the enormity of life, know that there probably exists a specific name for your emotional state. Want more obscurity? Check out The Dictionary of Obscure Emotions.
