These “23 words for emotions people feel but can’t explain” aren’t real but probably should be

It’s not the first time we’ve seen these but we still love them, a list of 23 emotions that people feel but can’t explain that’s just gone viral all over again on Reddit.

They’re not actual words (you probably already know this) although it feels like they should be.

They are all taken from graphic designer and editor John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (find out more about that here) with a book due out in November this year.

Just in case they are tricky to read, here they are once again.

1. Sonder
The realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own.

2. Opia
The ambiguous intensity of Looking someone in the eye, which can feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable.

3. Monachopsis
The subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place.

4. Énouement
The bittersweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self.

5. Vellichor
The strange wistfulness of used bookshops.

6. Rubatosis
The unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat.

7. Kenopsia
The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.

8. Mauerbauertraurigkeit
The inexplicable urge to push people away, even close friends who you really like.

9. Jouska
A hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head.

10. Chrysalism
The amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm.

11. Vemödalen
The frustration of photographic something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist.

12. Anecdoche
A conversation in which everyone is talking, but nobody is listening.

13. Ellipsism
A sadness that you’ll never be able to know how history will turn out.

14. Kuebiko
A state of exhaustion inspired by acts of senseless violence.

15. Lachesism
The desire to be struck by disaster — to survive a plane crash, or to lose everything in a fire.

16. Exulansis
The tendency to give up trying to talk about an experience because people are unable to relate to it.

17. Adronitis
Frustration with how long it takes to get to know someone.

18. Rückkehrunruhe
The feeling of returning home after an immersive trip only to find it fading rapidly from your awareness.

19. Nodus Tollens
The realization that the plot of your life doesn’t make sense to you anymore.

20. Onism
The frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time.

21. Liberosis
The desire to care less about things.

22. Altschmerz
Weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had — the same boring flaws and anxieties that you’ve been gnawing on for years.

23. Occhiolism
The awareness of the smallness of your perspective.

And just three of the things people said about them.

‘Ah, Mauerbauertraurigkeit, my old friend.’ DevonMG

‘Is there a word for thinking the feelings you have are unique to yourself, but then finding out that those feelings are actually common enough to have their own words?’ brum_throwaway

‘The one I relate to I can’t even pronounce.’ blondie_bleu

You can also find the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows on YouTube here.

Source Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows H/T Reddit u/ConstantMasterpiece5