23 emotions people feel but can’t explain

These wonderful words come from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, “a compendium of invented words” by graphic designer and editor John Koenig.

He’s come up with dozens of terms that pinpoint the emotions we all feel but don’t know how to communicate. And my heart is bursting with the whimsy of it all.

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.