Highlights for ‘The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows’

by John Koenig

ISBN: 9781501153662

Created with Highlighted. Highlights may be protected by copyright.

merrenness, n.: the lulling isolation of driving late at night-floating through the void in an otherworldly hum, trailing red jewels in the darkness, your high beams sweeping back and forth like a lighthouse. Hungarian merre, where? in which direction? Pronounced “mair-uhn-nis.”

p. 25

heartspur, n. an unexpected surge of emotion in response to a seemingly innocuous trigger-the distinctive squeal of a rusty fence, a key change in an old pop song, the hint of a certain perfume-which feels all the more intense because you can’t quite pin it down. From heart + spur, a spike on a heel that urges a horse to move forward.

p. 45

nighthawk, n. a recurring thought that only seems to strike you late at night—an overdue task, a nagging guilt, a looming future-which you sometimes manage to forget for weeks, only to feel it land on your shoulder once again, quietly building a nest. Nighthawks is a famous painting by Edward Hopper, depicting a lonely corner diner late at night. In logging, a nighthawk is a metal ball that slid up and down a riverboat’s flagpole, to aid pilots in navigation.

p. 47

ioia (n.) the wish that you could see statistics overlaid on every person you encounter —checking the signal strength of their compatibility, a measure of their trustworthiness, or even just an emoji that tells you how they’re really feeling.

From the two symbols of binary code, 1 and 0, denoting “on” or “off” + I am. Pronounced “ahy-yo-yuh.”

p. 66

incidental contact high

n. an innocuous touch by someone just doing their job-a barber, yoga instructor, or friendly waitress— that you find more meaningful than you’d like to admit; a feeling of connection so stupefyingly simple it makes you wonder if aspiring novelists would be better off just offering people a hug.

In sports, incidental contact is a glancing touch that doesn’t rise to the level of a foul. A contact high is when you feel the effects of a drug vicariously.

p. 86

fensiveness

n. a knee-jerk territorial reaction when a friend displays a casual interest in one of your obsessions.

Mandarin ?? (fěnsī), fan, admirer + defensiveness. Pronounced “fensiv-nis.”

p. 86

mottleheaded

adj. feeling uneasy when socializing with odd combinations of friends and family, or friends and colleagues, or colleagues and family-mixing a medley of ingredients that don’t typically go together, which risks either watering down your identity into gray mush, or accidentally triggering some sort of explosion.

From motley, comprising incongruous elements + headed. Pronounced “mot-I-hed-id.”

p. 86