coined by John Koenig
anemoia
Homesickness for a decade you were born too late to see, set off by a box of a stranger's 1960s slides or a song from before your parents met.
John Koenig’s words
Sonder, anemoia, kenopsia, and the rest of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.
John Koenig began The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows in 2009 as a blog of invented words for emotions that had no name. It grew into a YouTube series and, in 2021, a book published by Simon & Schuster. Several of its words, sonder above all, are now searched for more often than most real dictionary entries.
The words are Koenig’s. They are not old, and they are not borrowed from another language, which is why each of them carries his name here instead of a “loanword” label. The definitions on this site are in our own words, not his; for his, and for the full collection, read the book or visit thedictionaryofobscuresorrows.com.
coined by John Koenig
exulansis
Back from five months at a research station in Antarctica, you answer the third person who asks how it was with "cold" and start talking about their kitchen.
coined by John Koenig
kenopsia
The wrong-footed quiet of a stadium concourse the morning after a game, or any room built for a crowd and standing empty.
coined by John Koenig
liberosis
Checking work email late on a Sunday night while the dog sleeps on the rug, and wanting to mind about the inbox as little as the dog does.
coined by John Koenig
monachopsis
The new hire, months in, who still does not know whose mug is whose: the slow, ongoing mismatch of a person and a place that never quite fits.
coined by John Koenig
onism
Dropping the little Street View figure onto a random road in Kazakhstan and knowing that this, a fence and a gas station, is as close as you will get.
coined by John Koenig
sonder
The jolt of seeing a stranger at a bus stop as the center of a whole life, with its own errands and debts, that you will never hear about.
coined by John Koenig
vellichor
The quiet pull of a used bookstore, where a pencilled price, a stranger's inscription and a forgotten bus ticket each point to an earlier owner.