Language Gets Emotional: 10 New Words To Explain Your Pain


Using language as a way to deal with pain and depression is nothing new. After all, finding a way to voice what you feel, whether in your native tongue or a foreign one, can go a long way to helping you change your outlook on life. However, human emotions are complex. We are so often made up of a combination of emotions that it can be difficult to pinpoint just one when we try to express what we’re feeling. Saying “I’m sad” suddenly becomes a lot more difficult because you realize that sadness is not the only emotion you’re going through at the moment.

This is where The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows comes in – through inventing new words, founder John Koenig hopes to fill the language hole all the while giving people a way to communicate what they’re feeling in words. Want to add a few to your vocabulary? Read on to discover 10 new words which you can use when life gets complicated and emotional:

MonachopsisWe’ve all had those times where we feel like we don’t belong, and yet finding a single word to describe it can be such a challenge. Well, struggle no longer, because now there is a word!

RückkehrunruheThis is a word that expats and travelers will understand. Sometimes our experiences abroad are so real, colorful, and vivid that it can be painful to realize how quickly they diminish once we’re back on familiar territory.

Mauerbauertraurigkeit (1)This one is a doozy of a word, but as you can see it has a pretty heavy meaning too. Just don’t get too tongue-tied the next time you want to tell someone you have mauerbauertraurigkeit!

(n) the fear that everything has alreadyYou know what they say, the world is becoming a smaller place, and it can seem like there remains nothing new to discover, do, or experience because it’s all been done before.

EllipsismWho hasn’t thought about the fleeting nature of life? It can be hard to accept that we’ll never know what life will be like in a thousand years. Will the world be better? Worse? The ellipsism can be overwhelming!

ExulansisPart of the beauty of humanity is that we get to have our own unique experiences. However, sometimes it helps to have someone who can understand what we’re going through. This word speaks to those who find it difficult to find another human being who can relate.

OnismAs wonderful as the human body is, it can also sometimes feel like a prison holding us back from a truly immense experience. For those who wish they could be in more than one place at a time, onism is for you.

(n) the bittersweetness of havingWe all have things we’d like to say to our younger selves. Wish you could reassure the younger you that everything turns out okay? What you’ve got is énouement.

NighthawkEver lay awake at night with the same thoughts circling around and around in your head? Those nagging worries that just won’t let you sleep are nighthawks.

AnemoiaSome people can have such an intense connection to another time, whether it be decades or centuries ago, that they’re often left feeling like they were born at the wrong point in time. Finally there’s a word for this sort of nostalgia!

Whether you plan on using these words or not, it is a nice feeling to know that someone out there is creating language which can express emotions we all feel but can’t say. Adding words to your native lexicon isn’t the only way you can use language in an emotional way; a multitude of foreign tongues have unique manners of expressing emotions that you may not find in your own. By signing up for excellent language classes you’ll be providing yourself with new ways and opportunities to express what you’re feeling, whether its pain, joy, or something much more convoluted and complex!