rogue

The weird feelings we've all experienced, but that don't have a word in English.


There are more than 170,000 words currently in use in the English language. Most native speakers have a vocabulary that covers around 20,000 of them.

Yet how often do you struggle to find one that describes the way you feel?

That's where the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows comes in. 

The brainchild of writer John Koenig, the online compendium gives names to the obscure emotions we all experience but just don't have a word for.

Like...

Hanker sore: 
"When you find someone so attractive that it actually kind of pisses you off."

Sonder: 
"The realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own..."

Zielschmerz:
"The dread of getting what you want or finally pursuing a lifelong dream."

Liberosis: 
"The desire to care less about things — to loosen your grip on your life, to stop glancing behind you every few steps, afraid that someone will snatch it from you..."

Nighthawk:
"A recurring thought that only seems to strike you late at night — an overdue task, a nagging guilt, a looming and shapeless future — that circles high overhead during the day, that pecks at the back of your mind while you try to sleep..."

Zenosyne:
"The feeling that time speeds up as you get older."

Heartworm:
"A relationship or friendship that you can’t get out of your head, which you thought had faded long ago but is still somehow alive and unfinished..."

Ecstatic Shock:
"The surge of energy upon catching a glance from someone you like — a thrill that starts in your stomach, arcs up through your lungs and flashes into a spontaneous smile..."

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These are words Koenig has invented to plug the holes in English's handling of emotions. And it's working. 'Sonder', in particular, has been taken up in many online communities and used legitimately.

But there are other languages that have far fewer holes when it comes to hard-to-describe feelings.

Some that have entered our everyday vernacular. Like 'schadenfreude', for example: a German word that refers to pleasure derived from someone else's pain or misfortune. 

We could also do with some of these beautifully succinct words and phrases.

Kreng-jai (Thai): The feeling of not wanting to put someone out.

Gigil (Tagalog): The overpowering feeling that comes with seeing something unbearably cute (when you want to pinch a baby's cheeks, for example).

Ikrsuarpok (Inuit): The frustration of waiting for someone to turn up.

Ya’aburnee (Arabic): An expression of hope that you'll die before a loved one so you don't have to bear the pain of living without them.

Feature image: Getty/Mamamia.