Sonder

Sonder (pronounced sonn-duh)

The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as one’s own. 

2012: Coined by John Koenig and thus entered English.  From the Middle French sonder, from the Old French sonder (to plumb), from sonde (sounding line), from the Old English sund ((sounding), as in sundġierd (sounding-rod)), sundlīne (sounding-line, lead) & sundrāp (sounding-rope, lead), from sund (ocean, sea), from the Proto-Germanic sundą (a swim, body of water, sound), from the primitive Indo-European swem (to be unsteady, swim) and cognate with the Old Norse sund (swimming; strait, sound).  The words which most obviously capture the meaning are probably the modern German sonder (special) and the modern French sonder (to probe).

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (Simon & Schuster (2021) pp 288, ISBN13: 9781501153648) is a multi-media project by John Koenig, encompassing a website, YouTube channel and, since 2021, a printed book.  Koenig’s purpose is to coin and define neologisms for emotions which, in English, do not have a single encapsulating word or brief phrase, the entries listed on the website and the companion volume with paragraph-length descriptions while the YouTube channel includes illustrative clips.  Koenig does not use free-form construction; not arbitrary, his words are crafted in a way not dissimilar to the manner in which English has for more than a thousand years created or absorbed words as they proved useful, his research exploring etymologies, prefixes, suffixes, and word roots.  Some may endure and some not, just how English has always evolved; for better or worse, not all tongues enjoy such linguistic promiscuity.

#freckles Opia: Looking into the eyes of Lindsay Lohan.

So there’s nothing unusual about the creation of words although in English, they’ve tended to be invented to describe new things (eg motherboard), fantastical imaginings (eg Lewis Carroll’s (1835—1898) Jabberwocky (1871)) or for literary purposes such as the whole lexicon created by Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) for A Clockwork Orange (1962).  It differs too from English’s traditional borrowing of foreign words if they do a more elegant job than that which in English demands a phrase and thus borrowed are zeitgeist (spirit of the age), schadenfreude (pleasure in the suffering of others) and fuselage (main body of an airframe).  Koenig decided to create the dictionary because, as a poet, he found the words needed to suit the rhythm of his verse simply didn’t exist.  In engineering or many other fields his approach would be uncontroversial but there may be poets (there certainly will be critics) who disapprove and suggest it’s cheating for one to create new words just because one can’t think a way to use one of the hundreds of thousands English already has.  In a similar vein, JRR Tolkien (1892–1973) criticized CS Lewis’ (1898–1963) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the first of the seven volumes of The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956).  On more substantive grounds he’d issued a critique of the heavy-handed way Lewis interpolated Christian themes but his letters also reveal he rather looked down of what he thought was cheating or at least literary laziness: Tolkien took years to construct his geography; Lewis just said there was a door in the back of a wardrobe.

Fragments from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Adronitis: The frustration induced by the time it takes to get to know another.

Ambedo: A moment so mesmerizing, so enchanting, that one is compelled to experience it for its own sake.

Anecdoche: A conversation in which all are talking and none are listening.

Anemoia: A nostalgic longing for a time one has never known.

Chrysalism: The feeling of an amniotic envelopment if safe and warm inside while outside a thunderstorm rages.

Ellipsism: The sadness of knowing one will never know how history unfolds.

Énouement: The bitter-sweetness of having arrived in the future and knowing how things turned out but not being able to warn one's younger self.

Exulansis: The tendency to give up speaking of certain things because others never understand.

Jouska: A hypothetical conversation conduced wholly in one's own mind.

Kenopsia: The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place usually bustling but now deserted and silent.

Koinophobia: The fear of living an ordinary life.

Kuebiko: A state of exhaustion induced by acts of senseless violence.

Lachesism: A desire to be struck by disaster.

Liberosis: The desire to care less.

Lutalica: The realization one doesn’t need a label to belong.

Mauerbauertraurigkeit: The inexplicable to push away all, even those usually close to one.

Monachopsis: A subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place.

Nodus Tollens: The realization the track of one's life no longer makes sense.

Occhiolism: The awareness of the smallness of one in the universe.

Olēka: The awareness of how few days are truly memorable.

Onism: The awareness of how little of the world one will experience.

Opia: Of the ambiguity of brief, intense eye contact and our reaction to it happening.

Rubatosis: The unsettling awareness of the beat of one's own heart.

Rűckkehrunruhe: Realizing a recent, intense, immersive experience is rapidly fading from memory.

Socha: The hidden vulnerabilities in those around you.

Sonder: The realization that each random passer-by is living a life as vivid and complex as one’s own.

Vellichor: The gentle charm of shops which sell old books.

Vemődalen: The frustration felt when having composed an extraordinary photograph, one discovers a myriad of similar images already exist.

Yù Yī: A desire to again experience intensely.