The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a website and YouTube channel created by John Koenig that defines neologisms for emotions that do not have a descriptive term. The dictionary includes verbal entries on the website with paragraph-length descriptions and videos on YouTube for individual entries. The neologisms, while completely created by Koenig, are based on his research on etymologies and meanings of used prefixes, suffixes, and word roots. The terms are often based on "feelings of existentialism" and are meant to "fill a hole in the language", often from reader contributions of specific emotions. Some videos involve a large number of photographs, such as the video for Vemödalen, which uses an "almost exhausting—yet seamless—fusion of 465 similar photos from different photographers". Other videos are more personal, such as Avenoir,which involves a "collage of his own home movies to piece together an exploration of life’s linearity".

History

The dictionary was first considered in 2006 when Koenig was a "student at Macalaster College in Minnesota" and was attempting to write poetry. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows was the idea he came up with that would contain all the words he needed for his poetry, including emotions that had never been linguistically described. The popularity of the website and web series began to grow in June of 2015 after a list of twenty-three words from the dictionary began to be shared on multiple social media sites.

Notable words

vemödalen n. the frustration of photographing something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist—the same sunset, the same waterfall, the same curve of a hip, the same closeup of an eye—which can turn a unique subject into something hollow and pulpy and cheap, like a mass-produced piece of furniture you happen to have assembled yourself.

John Koenig, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Several of the neologisms presented in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, especially those that have an accompanying video, have received attention and interest. The term Vemödalen focuses on the lack of creativity within photography due to the existence of similar photographs having been taken in the past. However, the video also focuses on how it is "inevitable that the “same” image will be captured by different individuals" while it is also correct that "just because some things seem similar, their uniqueness is not annulled". Using a quote from Walt Whitman, the video points out that something being unique will always be based on adding to what came before and that every photo ever made is being added to the story of photographs that all people are collaborating on.

The term Sonder has been noted as well for its relation to other people, its definition meaning "the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own". Sonder has also been appropriated by various companies for use as the name of a bike brand and the title of a video game.

Critical reception

The Times of India referred to the dictionary as a "delightful website for etymologists and wordsmiths". Sharanya Manivannan, writing for the The New Indian Express, described the dictionary as a "beautiful experiment on the fine line between babble and Babel."

External links

• Official website
• The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows on YouTube
• The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows on TestTube