The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig. Pub 2021
This has lingered on my shelves for a while now, something I started and stopped a few times. After the disastrous previous read about language, I decided to try again to make this one my language category.
We use foreign words in English to name things, for precision and greater expression of feeling. Words like schadenfreude and hygge have become commonplace, borrowing concepts from those other languages or cultures. But sometimes there just is no word available to describe a thought or a feeling. I’m a big fan of being able to name things precisely and specifically in order to then address or use them effectively.
This book emerged from the author’s several years’ project of addressing exactly that – creating new words and making short videos of them, to fill in the spaces with words for common feelings that lack an adequate word or description. Having accumulated a sufficient number, he created a lovely little book about them. Each word is new, not appearing in any other dictionary (well, a few are repurposed with completely new definitions). Several are mash-ups of existing words, both English and non-. For each, there is a definition and an etymology. As the title suggests, most of the words are sad or melancholy, reflecting the many facets of life’s challenges, disappointments, and inevitabilities. Some brief examples:
- Solysium: the unhinged delirium of being alone for an extended period of time.
- Mithenness: the unsettling awareness that the rest of the world happily carries on in your absence.
- Rialtoscuro: the disorientation of stepping outside a movie theatre into unexpected darkness.
- Rasque: a moment you instantly wish you could take back.
The write-ups for all words are much longer, with examples and excursions into where and how the feelings might occur. There are several longer essays about even more complex words (Tiris: the bittersweet awareness that all things must end, includes a several page description) and these include dreamlike collages that reflect the complexity and essence of the word, bringing in a philosophical, psychological, and visual element to these.
One simultaneously fantastic and frustrating thing (perhaps there should be a word for that, too) is that the definitions are in somewhat random order. There are six sections (including worldview, selfhood, relationships, and time) but within those the words are in no particular order, which makes finding them again a challenge (there is an index, but if you don’t know the word you’re looking for, that’s little help). I flagged about 30 words that I found apropos or poignant, but anticipate future frustrating searches for just that right word (something else that deserves its own word).
Fate: will remain on my shelf, and also likely become a Christmas present for other wordies I know.
5 – a book about language
7 – author’s debut
25 – new author to me
29 – leftover
30 – philosophy
32 – art
rclr 