Sure you’ve felt all these things but you didn’t know they had a name

Have you ever had a feeling so strong that you didn’t know how to explain it? It has happened to all of us at some point, because when it comes to feelings, words are sometimes not enough.

However, to try to start reaching a little more, designer John Koening created certain words to define feelings.

To do so, he studied hundreds of languages ​​and lexicons, so that they can be used throughout the world. In addition, each word has an etymological meaning, that is, a provenance that explains its meaning.

“Each original definition is meant to fill a gap in the language to give a name to emotions that we might all experience,” Koening explains on his website, “Dictionary of Dark Sorrows,” where he has been working on these words since 2009.

So when you feel some of these things, now you know what to call them:

opium

It is the intense sensation that we experience when looking someone in the eye. It is the need to keep looking and at the same time, the sensation of an invasive energy that makes us feel vulnerable.

Etymology: From the Greek opia, plural of “opium” + opia, “of the eyes”.

enouement

Now that the future has arrived, that we already know how things have turned out, we feel a strong desire to go back to the past to talk to our selves back then.

The feeling of wanting to meet again with the person we were, who is waiting for news of the future, and tell him how things will be so that he stays calm. That is enouement.

Vellichor

It is the nostalgic feeling of an old bookstore, full of books and stories that will never be read due to lack of time.

It has a great similarity with the Greek word petrichor, where it comes from, which means “the essence of rain on wet ground”.

kenopsia

The etymology of this word comes from the Greek: kenosis “empty” + opsia “to see”.

It refers to the sad atmosphere that a place has, when it should normally be full of people, but it is empty and abandoned.

Vemödalen

Have you been to the Eiffel Tower, or perhaps seen a magical sunset? Surely, your first impulse has been to take a photo of it, and then you realize that there are hundreds of identical photos (even much better) out there.

That feeling of frustration when photographing something and knowing that your photograph will be one of the many, that is Vemödalen.

It comes from Swedish: vemod means “tender sadness or pensive melancholy” + vemdalen, which is the name of a Swedish city, with which IKEA usually names its products.

lachism

That strange feeling of wanting to be shaken by catastrophe: surviving a plane crash, losing everything in a fire.

A rare but strong desire that the tragedy mark a before and after in your life.

Its etymology comes from the Greek, lachesis meaning “waste lot”, and also Lachesis, which is the name of the second of the three destinies in ancient Greek mythology.

libosis

If you are one of those who worry too much about things, surely you know liberosis. It is that intense desire for things to worry us less, to be able to let go of them.

It comes from Italian, and specifically from sport. He has to do with the libero, a member of the volleyball team who is important in defense and can move more freely than the rest of the players.

Your mission is only to keep the ball in play.

These are just a small sample of the more than 100 words that the Dictionary of Dark Sorrows currently possesses…

Have you ever felt any of this? Is there a feeling you’d like to name?