Not slang. Not buzzwords.
Real words. For unreal feelings. We named what silence could not.
These are terms for states of being that modern language fails to capture — emotional precision that fuels better understanding, communication, and diplomacy.
Whether you’re designing interfaces, facilitating negotiations, or building interspecies trust, words matter.
Emotional States
Honeyache
Etymological Origin: From honey (Old English hunig, sweetness) + ache (from Old English acan, pain), connoting a sweetness entwined with pain.
Poetic Definition: A golden ache that is both sweet and painful, as when cherished memories of love bring both joy and sorrow.
Tone and Texture: Tender and bittersweet, warm yet aching – like tasting honey that reminds you of someone now gone. It carries a gentle heaviness that comforts even as it hurts.
Usage Context: Even years after her first love, a honeyache would well up in her chest whenever she heard that old song, a sweetness twined with pain that she wouldn’t trade away.
Nowstalgia
Etymological Origin: Coined from now + nostalgia (Greek nostos, return home + algos, pain), suggesting a longing for the present moment.
Poetic Definition: A wistful longing for the present as it slips away; the strange wistfulness of experiencing a moment you know will soon become a cherished memory.
Tone and Texture: Poignant and delicate, tinged with the soft sadness of knowing that “now” is fleeting. It feels like dusk light – beautiful, brief, and tinged with melancholy.
Usage Context: As they laughed around the dinner table, he was overcome with nowstalgia, already missing the moment even as it was happening.
Dreadelation
Etymological Origin: Blend of dread (Old English drǣdan, to fear) + elation (Latin elatus, uplifted), reflecting joy laced with fear.
Poetic Definition: A euphoric excitement laced with fear that it will soon come crashing down; the giddy high of joy shadowed by the suspicion that it’s too good to last.
Tone and Texture: Tense and jittery beneath a glittering happiness, like laughing on the edge of a cliff. It’s exuberant but with white-knuckled apprehension woven through.
Usage Context: When her dream started coming true, she felt a burst of dreadelation – giddy at her success, yet terrified that it could all vanish instantly.
Melancalm
Etymological Origin: Portmanteau of melancholy (Greek melas, black + kholé, bile, meaning sadness) + calm.
Poetic Definition: A gentle, tranquil melancholy that settles softly; the peaceful acceptance of sadness without resistance or turmoil.
Tone and Texture: Solemn and gentle, like a quiet gray sky that isn’t stormy but softly overcast. It’s a calm blue sorrow–soothing in its way, with no sharp edges.
Usage Context: After the long farewell, a melancalm enveloped him – a sorrow without rage or tears, as quiet and natural as dusk.
Hollowache
Etymological Origin: From hollow (Old English holh, an empty space) + ache, implying an emptiness that hurts.
Poetic Definition: A deep, dull ache of emptiness; the longing pain of a hollow heart that yearns to feel something – even sadness – rather than nothing at all.
Tone and Texture: Empty, resonant, and aching, like an echo in a vacant room. It’s a cold, persistent ache with no immediate remedy, defined by absence.
Usage Context: In the months after he lost his passion for playing music, he felt only a hollowache where his joy used to be, craving even sadness just to break the numbness.
Griefnest
Etymological Origin: Compound of grief (Old French grief, hardship or suffering) + nest, suggesting a place of dwelling or rest.
Poetic Definition: A sorrow one settles into like a nest; a familiar sadness that oddly comforts because it’s known and safe, providing a refuge from the uncertainty of hope.
Tone and Texture: Heavy but soothing – like a dark room you’ve grown accustomed to. It’s sorrowful yet strangely comfortable, wrapping around you with a perverse sense of safety.
Usage Context: She curled up in her griefnest each evening, wrapping herself in old heartaches because they felt safer than the risk of new happiness.
Painshadow
Etymological Origin: From pain + shadow, evoking the image of another’s pain casting a shadow over you.
Poetic Definition: A gloom cast by someone else’s hurt, as if their pain were a shadow falling over your heart. It’s the sorrow you carry on behalf of another.
Tone and Texture: Somber and heavy, an empathetic darkness that dims your light. It feels like a gray cloud passing over the sun, chilling even a bright day.
Usage Context: He carried a painshadow after visiting his grieving friend, her sorrow echoing within him long after he left her side.
Dreadire
Etymological Origin: Fusion of dread + desire (Latin desiderare, to long for), indicating fear-laced longing.
Poetic Definition: A conflicted yearning for the very thing that frightens you; desire entwined with dread, pulling you in even as you want to run away.
Tone and Texture: Electrified and tense, equal parts alluring and alarming – like reaching toward a flame, entranced by its glow even as you fear the burn.
Usage Context: Standing at the opportunity of a lifetime abroad, she felt a dreadire – she wanted this adventure with all her heart, even as the thought of it terrified her.
Jittersweet
Etymological Origin: Blending jitters (colloquial for nervous trembles) + sweet, capturing anxious delight.
Poetic Definition: A fluttery excitement that is as sweet as it is anxious; joyful anticipation with butterflies in the stomach and a hint of worry.
Tone and Texture: Bright and effervescent on the surface with an undercurrent of shaky uncertainty – like champagne bubbles with a subtle tremor. It’s optimistic but a touch nervous.
Usage Context: On the morning of his wedding, he was jittersweet – grinning from ear to ear yet unable to completely steady his hands.
Heartfog
Etymological Origin: Compound of heart + fog, suggesting emotions clouded in mist.
Poetic Definition: A hazy emotional state in which one’s heart is clouded and feelings are hard to discern or articulate. It is the blur of the soul when you can’t tell what you truly feel.
Tone and Texture: Muddled and subdued, an obscuring haze over the landscape of your emotions. It’s gentle but confusing – like trying to navigate through morning fog without a compass.
Usage Context: After the tumult of the move and so many mixed emotions, she wandered in a heartfog, unable to tell if she was sad, relieved, or simply numb.
Bitterbloom
Etymological Origin: From bitter + bloom, implying a flowering that tastes bitter.
Poetic Definition: A bittersweet blossoming; the mixture of bitter sorrow and sweet pride when someone you love grows or achieves something that also takes them away from you.
Tone and Texture: Tender and poignant – joyous in its bright petals yet edged with the sharp sting of loss. It feels like a celebration with tears in your eyes.
Usage Context: Watching her daughter leave for college, she felt a bitterbloom in her chest – swelling pride entwined with the ache of letting go.
Reverfear
Etymological Origin: Portmanteau of revere (Latin revereri, to respect or be in awe of) + fear.
Poetic Definition: A trembling reverence toward someone you love that overwhelms you; admiration so intense it borders on fear – the fear of not being enough for them or of losing them.
Tone and Texture: Adoring yet uneasy, like standing in warm sunlight that leaves you blinking. It’s affectionate and awestruck, with a ripple of anxiety at its core.
Usage Context: He held his newborn son with reverfear – utterly in awe of this tiny life and terrified by the weight of love and responsibility now in his arms.
Emberyearn
Etymological Origin: Fusion of ember (Old English æmerge, a small glowing coal) + yearn, symbolizing a glowing longing.
Poetic Definition: A wistful longing for the remnants of a feeling that has burned out; the heart’s ache to rekindle an old passion or love from the faint embers that remain.
Tone and Texture: Warm and melancholic, glowing faintly like coals in ashes – gentle but persistent in its ache, radiating a soft heat of nostalgia.
Usage Context: Sometimes she sifted through old letters out of emberyearn, hoping to spark even a trace of the love she used to feel.
Scarache
Etymological Origin: From scar (Old Norse skarð, notch or mark from a wound) + ache.
Poetic Definition: A familiar ache from a long-healed hurt that resurfaces; the distant, dull pain of an emotional scar reminding you it once was a wound.
Tone and Texture: Subdued and familiar, like an old lament quietly humming. It’s not overwhelming, but present enough to make you wince – a gentle throb that proves the past is still part of you.
Usage Context: Seeing his former best friend after so many years was a scarache – a brief pang from a friendship that had faded, reminding him of what used to be.
Duskswell
Etymological Origin: From dusk + swell, suggesting a rising tide at twilight.
Poetic Definition: A tide of unnamed emotions that rises at twilight; a swelling sense of everything and nothing mingled as day sinks into night.
Tone and Texture: Ethereal and overwhelming, with a quiet intensity – like a sky slowly deepening in color, heavy with unshed stars. It’s both empty and full, an indefinable rush at the edge of night.
Usage Context: She sat by the window each evening to ride the duskswell – that profound, unnamable rush of feeling that came as the light faded and the first stars appeared.
Afterglum
Etymological Origin: Blend of afterglow (the light that remains after something bright has gone) + glum (sad).
Poetic Definition: A melancholy that settles in after a moment of intense happiness or accomplishment; the blue shadow that follows the bright spotlight of joy.
Tone and Texture: Dim and fading, quietly sorrowful – like the echo of laughter in an empty hall. It’s the gentle letdown once the excitement passes, a gray twilight after the brilliant day.
Usage Context: The party was brilliant, but she woke the next morning in the fog of afterglum, wondering why loneliness had crept in after such revelry.
Stormstill
Etymological Origin: Compound of storm + still, referencing the calm after a storm.
Poetic Definition: The uncanny quiet that falls after a storm of emotions has spent itself; a peaceful emptiness following chaos, when all that remains is silence and breathing.
Tone and Texture: Calm yet hollow, like the muted silence in the eye of a hurricane or the smooth ocean after a squall. It is relief tempered by exhaustion, tranquility with an undertone of void.
Usage Context: Their argument raged for hours, but in the stormstill that followed, they simply sat together in silence on the couch, drained and quietly understanding each other without another word.
Alonease
Etymological Origin: From alone + ease, meaning comfort in being alone.
Poetic Definition: A calm comfort in solitude; the gentle ease and contentment of one’s own company without any loneliness.
Tone and Texture: Light and soothing, peaceful as a Sunday morning spent in silence. It’s the emotional equivalent of a warm cup of tea and a soft blanket – simple, wholesome, and restorative.
Usage Context: On Friday night, she happily stayed in with a book, wrapped in an aura of alonease that was as nurturing and satisfying as any social gathering.
Mundelight
Etymological Origin: Portmanteau of mundane + delight, indicating joy in the ordinary.
Poetic Definition: A quiet delight found in life’s simple, ordinary moments; the gentle happiness that comes from everyday little things and routines.
Tone and Texture: Warm, light, and unassuming – like morning sunlight on the kitchen table. It’s humble in its joy, a soft, steady glow rather than a brilliant flash.
Usage Context: He found mundelight in his morning ritual of brewing coffee, smiling at the simple pleasure rising with the steam and filling his kitchen with comfort.
Hopeglint
Etymological Origin: From hope (Old English hopian, to wish or hope) + glint (a small flash of light).
Poetic Definition: A faint yet shining return of hope after a period of darkness; a single bright speck in the gloom that promises things might one day be okay again.
Tone and Texture: Delicate and uplifting, tenuous but brilliant – like the first star peeking through after a storm. It’s fragile but radiant, a promise carried on a whisper.
Usage Context: Even in the depths of her grief, a hopeglint emerged when she heard her own laughter–quiet and unexpected, it hinted that joy might slowly return.
Psychological States
Dazeveil
Etymological Origin: From daze (state of stunned confusion) + veil, evoking a veil of bewilderment.
Poetic Definition: A fog of unreality that hangs between you and the world; feeling detached, as if everything around you is just slightly out of reach or not quite real.
Tone and Texture: Dreamy, muted, and distant – like being wrapped in gauze, with life’s colors and sounds muffled. It’s quietly disorienting, a soft haze over reality.
Usage Context: In the weeks after the accident, he moved through each day in a dazeveil, everything seeming curiously dim, slowed, and unreal.
Chronoslide
Etymological Origin: From chrono (time, Greek chronos) + slide, suggesting slipping through time.
Poetic Definition: The sensation of time sliding and warping – moments from long ago feeling vivid and near, while recent days blur together as if they never happened.
Tone and Texture: Disorienting and wistful, a blend of nostalgia and confusion, as if time were a slippery ribbon you can’t quite grasp. It carries both the sweetness of vivid memory and the disquiet of lost time.
Usage Context: Visiting his childhood home sent him into a chronoslide; twenty years collapsed into a heartbeat, while the present week felt like a hazy dream he could barely recall.
Mindweary
Etymological Origin: From mind + weary (Old English wērig, tired), literally “tired in the mind.”
Poetic Definition: A profound tiredness of the mind; when your thoughts feel heavy and every idea is a burden, often brought on by relentless worry, decision fatigue, or emotional strain.
Tone and Texture: Drained and dull, like colors washed out by too many storms. It’s a gray exhaustion that settles in the head, quieting even the desire to think.
Usage Context: By midnight, after wrestling with doubts and endless what-ifs, she was mindweary – her thoughts too tired to take another step, seeking refuge in sleep.
Stasislust
Etymological Origin: Coined from stasis (a state of stillness or equilibrium) + lust (desire), indicating a desire for change while in stasis.
Poetic Definition: A restless craving for transformation even as one remains paralyzed by fear; wanting life to shift yet clinging to the familiar.
Tone and Texture: Tense and conflicted, pulled in two directions – both eager and afraid. It feels like a bird longing to soar from an open cage but hesitating on the threshold.
Usage Context: He often spoke of quitting his job and traveling, a classic stasislust that lit his eyes with hope even as it filled them with worry in the same breath.
Cozycage
Etymological Origin: Compound of cozy (snug, giving comfort) + cage, suggesting a comfortable trap.
Poetic Definition: A state of safe, comfortable confinement; when the familiar routine that shelters you also restricts you, warmly trapping you in place.
Tone and Texture: Snug but stifling – gentle, predictable, and increasingly claustrophobic, like a beloved room that’s started to feel too small. Its security is sweet, but its limits weigh quietly on the soul.
Usage Context: His life in the small town became a cozycage; every day was reassuringly the same, until the sameness turned into bars he was both grateful for and eager to escape.
Noctilucid
Etymological Origin: From Latin noctis (night) + lucid (clear), literally “night-clear.”
Poetic Definition: A midnight lucidity that comes when the world is asleep; those sharp, insightful thoughts or creative visions that appear only in the still, silent hours of the night.
Tone and Texture: Quietly luminous and intense, almost otherworldly. It feels like a lone lamp burning in the dark – a focused brilliance that often fades by morning’s light.
Usage Context: At 3 AM, she was struck by a noctilucid idea about her novel’s ending – a vision so clear and compelling she got out of bed to write by moonlight.
Consolusion
Etymological Origin: Blend of console (to comfort) + illusion, literally “comforting illusion.”
Poetic Definition: A gentle self-deception embraced for solace; knowingly taking refuge in a fantasy or unlikely hope because it eases the heart in a painful reality.
Tone and Texture: Warm and protective, slightly wistful – like wrapping yourself in a soft blanket of make-believe. It’s comforting with a tinge of sadness, a refuge that you know isn’t real but need nonetheless.
Usage Context: Telling herself that he would come back was a consolusion she indulged each night – a story she didn’t truly believe, but one that let her fall asleep without tears.
Subxiety
Etymological Origin: From sub- (under, subtle) + anxiety, meaning an undercurrent of anxiety.
Poetic Definition: A subtle, persistent hum of worry that never fully goes away; the background buzz of unease that accompanies you even on ordinary days for no clear reason.
Tone and Texture: Quietly tense, like a faint vibration in the air. It’s easily drowned out by daytime chatter, but in still moments, you feel it there, a nearly invisible weight on the heart.
Usage Context: Her subxiety was like radio static in the back of her mind – even on calm afternoons, she sensed a tiny, inexplicable worry nibbling at her peace.
Mindschism
Etymological Origin: From mind + schism (a split or division), literally a split in the mind.
Poetic Definition: An internal split caused by contradictory thoughts or feelings pulling you in opposite directions; the strain of trying to hold two opposing truths at once.
Tone and Texture: Fractured and tense, sharp-edged with internal conflict. It feels like two discordant notes ringing in your head, unresolved and unsettling.
Usage Context: He experienced a mindschism, loving the freedom of his new life yet mourning the comfort of the old – two selves pulling at his mind, neither willing to let go.
Glassheart
Etymological Origin: From glass (transparent and fragile) + heart, implying a heart that is see-through and delicate.
Poetic Definition: A state of yearning to be seen and understood completely, paired with the fear that such exposure will lead to heartbreak; a heart that wants to be open but feels as fragile as glass.
Tone and Texture: Delicately anxious and hopeful – like sunlight through a thin windowpane, warm but edged with fragility. It carries a brightness of longing, shot through with hairline cracks of worry.
Usage Context: With a glassheart, she showed him pieces of her soul in late-night talks and letters, desperate to be known even as she braced for the pain it might bring if he didn’t handle her gently.
Capitubliss
Etymological Origin: Blend of capitulate (to surrender, from Latin capitulum, surrender terms) + bliss.
Poetic Definition: A peaceful joy that blooms the moment you stop fighting an unwinnable battle; the unexpected bliss of surrendering and finally laying down a heavy burden.
Tone and Texture: Liberating and serene, light as a sigh of relief. It’s the warmth that floods in when resistance melts away – gentle, yielding, and surprisingly sweet.
Usage Context: After years of trying to meet impossible expectations, she felt capitubliss when she finally let go – a rush of quiet happiness filled her as soon as she decided to stop striving for perfection.
Museburn
Etymological Origin: From muse (source of inspiration) + burn (as in burnout), suggesting inspiration burned out.
Poetic Definition: The hollow, spent feeling that follows an intense creative high; when the bright flame of inspiration dies down, leaving ashes of exhaustion and a vague emptiness.
Tone and Texture: Spent and hollow, tinged with wistfulness – like the silence after a beautiful song ends. It’s both a relief and a sadness, a calm that feels a little aimless.
Usage Context: He finished composing the symphony in a fevered rush, only to feel museburn the next day – with the music gone from his mind, he drifted around the house feeling strangely bereft and tired.
Mindflight
Etymological Origin: From mind + flight, meaning the urge for one’s mind to flee.
Poetic Definition: A frantic restlessness born from wanting to escape your thoughts; the impulse to flee into distraction or distance to get relief from the cage of your mind.
Tone and Texture: Agitated and urgent, like a bird flapping against a window – a mix of panic and yearning for relief. It buzzes with nervous energy and desperation.
Usage Context: Pacing the apartment as her worries swarmed, she was seized by mindflight – an overwhelming need to run, drive, do anything to get away from the relentless chatter in her head.
Agesoul
Etymological Origin: Compound of age + soul, implying an old soul.
Poetic Definition: A weary wisdom beyond one’s years; carrying the heaviness of age in a young heart, as if your soul has walked much farther than your body has.
Tone and Texture: Solemn and deep, tinged with nostalgia and fatigue. It’s the feeling of old eyes in a young face, of early sunsets in an otherwise bright summer sky.
Usage Context: At sixteen, she often wrote in her journal with an agesoul perspective – her thoughts about life and loss were hauntingly mature, as if an old poet dwelt in her young heart.
Autosunder
Etymological Origin: From auto (self) + sunder (Old English sundrian, to tear apart), literally “to tear oneself apart.”
Poetic Definition: A destructive impulse turned inward; the tendency to sabotage your own happiness or destroy good things in your life out of fear, guilt, or a sense of unworthiness.
Tone and Texture: Troubled and self-conflicted, heavy with regret even in the moment of doing harm. It feels like watching yourself knock over a cherished vase in slow motion – a mix of terror, sadness, and grim inevitability.
Usage Context: In relationships, he knew only autosunder – every time things were going well, some part of him would pick a fight or find a way to ruin it, as if he couldn’t believe he deserved happiness.
Mindecho
Etymological Origin: From mind + echo, suggesting thoughts echoing back.
Poetic Definition: A dissociative sensation where your thoughts seem to echo back at you in a foreign voice; hearing your inner voice as if it came from someone else, leaving you momentarily unsure who is thinking.
Tone and Texture: Uncanny and distant, slightly eerie – familiar yet estranged. It’s like shouting into a canyon and hearing a voice answer that almost sounds like yours, but not quite.
Usage Context: In the depths of exhaustion, he experienced mindecho – a running commentary in his head that felt detached from him, as though an outside observer were narrating his life.
Fatebound
Etymological Origin: From fate (destiny) + bound (tied to), literally “tied by fate.”
Poetic Definition: A resignation to unseen forces, the sense that you are being carried along by destiny or circumstances beyond your control, with your choices already made for you.
Tone and Texture: Heavy and resigned, yet strangely calm – like a boat drifting down a strong current. It carries a quiet sorrow of surrender and a hint of comfort in not having to struggle against the tide.
Usage Context: He moved through his days feeling fatebound, as if each decision was pre-scripted. It sometimes comforted him to think it was all out of his hands, but it also left him hollow, wondering if he’d ever steer his own course.
Patternpeace
Etymological Origin: From pattern + peace, meaning peace found in patterns.
Poetic Definition: A sense of safety and tranquility derived from orderly repetition; when following a routine, counting, or arranging things methodically soothes the mind and eases anxiety.
Tone and Texture: Steady and gentle, reassuring like a familiar lullaby. It’s quietly joyful in its predictability – calm, smooth, and comforting as knitting by a fireside.
Usage Context: She found patternpeace in the rhythm of kneading dough; the repetitive motion and structure of the recipe calmed her nerves more effectively than any mantra or meditation.
Identidrift
Etymological Origin: Portmanteau of identity + drift, suggesting a drifting of self.
Poetic Definition: The disorienting feeling of becoming a stranger to yourself after major life changes; when you look in the mirror and aren’t sure the person you see is the “you” you remember.
Tone and Texture: Unsettled and forlorn, a bit haunting – like seeing a familiar photograph that’s faded. It carries a sense of loss and quiet confusion, the sorrow of missing oneself.
Usage Context: After months in the high-pressure job, he felt an identidrift; when he finally stopped to breathe, he realized he hardly recognized the optimistic, carefree person he’d been a year before.
Selfcharade
Etymological Origin: From self + charade (an act or pretense), implying the self as an act.
Poetic Definition: A creeping suspicion that your entire persona is an act; the impostor-like feeling that underneath all your roles and masks, there might be no “real” you, only a series of performances.
Tone and Texture: Anxious and hollow, tinged with self-doubt, as if at any moment the mask could slip and reveal nothing behind it. It’s an unsettling emptiness, a performance played to an empty theater.
Usage Context: Smiling at the office party, he was seized by selfcharade – a sudden panic that everyone would see through his friendly demeanor to the insecure, uncertain person beneath, and realize he was faking it all.
Existential States
Cosmawe
Etymological Origin: From cosmos (Greek kosmos, universe) + awe, literally “awe of the universe.”
Poetic Definition: A profound awe at the scale of the universe and one’s tiny place within it; the breathless wonder (and slight terror) you feel when confronting the infinite.
Tone and Texture: Expansive and humbling, thrilling but edged with insignificance – like standing under a sky full of stars and feeling both enchanted and very small.
Usage Context: Looking up at the Milky Way from the mountain, he was overcome with cosmawe, tears in his eyes at the vast beauty that made his worries feel so trivial.
Speckserene
Etymological Origin: From speck (a tiny particle, implying smallness) + serene, meaning peaceful.
Poetic Definition: A calm comfort drawn from recognizing one’s insignificance in the grand scheme; the serenity that comes when you realize you are but a small speck in a vast universe, and find that fact oddly reassuring.
Tone and Texture: Peaceful and liberating, light as a feather on the wind. It’s the tranquil relief of setting down the heavy notion of being the center of anything, free in your smallness.
Usage Context: As the ocean stretched endlessly before her, she felt speckserene – a gentle relief in knowing her troubles were just a drop in that boundless sea.
Ephemeright
Etymological Origin: From ephemeral (short-lived, Greek ephemeros) + fright, indicating fear of the fleeting.
Poetic Definition: A sharp pang of anxiety or sadness at how quickly time passes; the rush of urgency and despair, realizing that each moment, even as you live it, is already slipping away for good.
Tone and Texture: Urgent and haunting, like the quickening tick of a clock in a silent room. It’s the mix of panic and sorrow that makes you want to hold on tighter to right now, even as it vanishes.
Usage Context: On his 30th birthday, an ephemeright hit him hard – he suddenly saw the years racing by, and a desperate need welled up to seize what was left of his youth before it too slipped through his fingers.
Nowherelonging
Etymological Origin: Compound of nowhere + longing, suggesting longing for no particular place.
Poetic Definition: A deep, wistful yearning for a home or time that isn’t real or accessible; a homesickness for an unknown, imaginary place or a life you never actually lived.
Tone and Texture: Lonely and dreamy, colored by an ache that’s both romantic and sorrowful, like reaching out in a dream for a landscape that fades away when you wake.
Usage Context: Sometimes at midnight, she felt a wave of nowherelonging – a sudden homesickness for a life she had never lived, in a place that only ever existed in her imagination.
Contrayearn
Etymological Origin: From contrary (opposite) + yearn, indicating opposing yearnings.
Poetic Definition: A tug-of-war in the heart, yearning in two opposite directions; the simultaneous longing for solitude and for companionship, unsure which desire will bring true solace.
Tone and Texture: Restless and irresolute, like a tide that can’t decide to ebb or flow. It swings between warm desire and cool withdrawal, never fully satisfied.
Usage Context: In her contrayearn, she often canceled plans for the peace of solitude, only to feel lonely and wish she hadn’t. Her heart pulled both ways, craving quiet and company in equal measure.
Limivortex
Etymological Origin: Blend of liminal (threshold, from Latin limen) + vortex (whirlwind).
Poetic Definition: A whirlwind of emotions at life’s threshold moments; a vortex of excitement, fear, nostalgia, and hope that swirls when one chapter ends and another begins.
Tone and Texture: Chaotic yet meaningful, intense and swirling – like confetti caught in a whirlwind. Every feeling is vivid and colliding, a storm of color at the border of change.
Usage Context: On the eve of his graduation, he was caught in a limivortex – one moment laughing with anticipation for the future, the next fighting back tears for all he was leaving behind.
Choiceache
Etymological Origin: From choice + ache, suggesting the pain of choosing.
Poetic Definition: The stress and sorrow that can accompany absolute freedom of choice; the ache of knowing your decisions alone shape your life, especially when no option feels clearly right.
Tone and Texture: Weighty and pensive, tinged with anxiety, like standing at a vast crossroads with a stone in your chest. It’s the heavy responsibility of freedom, both empowering and burdensome.
Usage Context: She had always yearned for independence, but faced with so many paths, she felt a deep choiceache – every option carried both promise and loss, and it was hers alone to decide.
Tragiclucid
Etymological Origin: From tragic + lucid, literally “clarity through tragedy.”
Poetic Definition: A painfully earned clarity that arrives in the wake of tragedy or loss; when the unimportant falls away and what truly matters stands out in stark, sharp focus.
Tone and Texture: Somber yet illuminating – a grave, clear light in the darkness. It feels like cold morning air after a night of storms: harsh but invigorating in its honesty.
Usage Context: Losing his father gave him a tragiclucid insight into his life. In his grief, he saw plainly that he’d neglected what truly mattered, a truth that pierced him but ultimately set him on a more meaningful path.
Moriosity
Etymological Origin: Blend of morbid + curiosity, referring to morbid curiosity.
Poetic Definition: An uneasy fascination with the macabre or the mysteries of death, tinged equally with fear and wonder; the impulse to peek into darkness even as it repels you.
Tone and Texture: Darkly inquisitive and tense – a shiver of intrigue mixed with a tremor of dread. It’s like the feeling of listening to a ghost story: you lean in even as your heartbeat rises.
Usage Context: He felt a moriosity walking through the old cemetery at dusk – an inexplicable urge to read every gravestone and imagine the stories, even though the silence between the mossy stones gave him chills.
Alienfamiliar
Etymological Origin: From alien (strange) + familiar, suggesting the familiar within the strange.
Poetic Definition: The uncanny sense of déjà vu in a new place or situation, as if you’ve been there before or belong there, even though you know you haven’t. It’s feeling oddly at home in alien surroundings.
Tone and Texture: Eerie yet comforting – a gentle disorientation paired with a mysterious warmth of recognition. It’s as if a fragment of your soul recognizes something the rest of you doesn’t.
Usage Context: The first time she wandered the streets of the distant city, she was struck by alienfamiliar sensations – every corner and cafe felt inexplicably like a homecoming to a place she had never been.
Selfeclipse
Etymological Origin: From self + eclipse, implying the self being overshadowed.
Poetic Definition: A melancholic awareness of your smallness; the feeling of being overshadowed by the vast world, as if your individual light has been briefly blotted out by something far larger and indifferent.
Tone and Texture: Lonely and dim, with a hush of humility – like twilight in the soul. It’s a quiet sorrow at being just one of many, a single note drowned in a great chorus.
Usage Context: He watched the city hustle on and felt a selfeclipse – whether he succeeded or failed seemed meaningless in that moment, as the world would carry on unchanged without him.
Chaoscraft
Etymological Origin: From chaos (complete disorder) + craft (to make or shape).
Poetic Definition: The act of forging meaning or order out of chaos, even if only temporarily. It’s the human impulse to weave stories and purpose from the frayed threads of confusion.
Tone and Texture: Determined and hopeful, with an undercurrent of defiance – a creative resilience that shines bright against a chaotic backdrop, even if it flickers at times.
Usage Context: After the hurricane destroyed their home, her mother’s chaoscraft amazed her – by evening, they were using broken wood to build a small shelter and telling funny stories to pass the time, weaving hope from wreckage.
Absurdanguish
Etymological Origin: From absurd (philosophically, without inherent meaning or order) + anguish.
Poetic Definition: A deep, existential despair that strikes when confronting the possibility that life has no inherent meaning; the emotional turmoil of staring into the void of absurdity.
Tone and Texture: Raw and profound, like a silent scream in a vast empty space. It’s despairing yet fiercely alive in its desperation, the soul’s dark night struggling to find a foothold.
Usage Context: At midnight, he often felt absurdanguish wash over him – an almost panicked grief at the thought that all his striving might be for naught in a cold, indifferent universe.
Absurdpeace
Etymological Origin: From absurd + peace.
Poetic Definition: A tranquil state reached after wrestling with meaninglessness and surrendering to it; a calm acceptance of life’s absurdity, where the lack of inherent meaning no longer frightens but liberates you to live freely.
Tone and Texture: Quiet and liberated, with a wistful undercurrent. It’s as gentle as dawn after a storm – the world is unchanged, but your heart is light because you’ve let go of the unanswerable.
Usage Context: He raged in his youth at the meaninglessness of life, but eventually found an absurdpeace – he chose to laugh, create, and love without needing a grand design, finding comfort in small joys instead.
Fleethrill
Etymological Origin: From fleeting + thrill, meaning a thrill because something is fleeting.
Poetic Definition: An intense, bittersweet joy experienced in a beautiful moment precisely because you know it won’t last; a surge of happiness made sharper by the awareness of its ephemerality.
Tone and Texture: Jubilant yet poignant, bright with a glimmer of sadness, like the last burst of fireworks before darkness. It’s joy with tears in its eyes, cherishing what is precious because it’s brief.
Usage Context: Dancing under the fairy lights at the summer’s end party, she felt a fleethrill – every laugh and spin was extra vivid knowing the night would soon be over and remembered only in glimmers.
Ghostlife
Etymological Origin: From ghost + life, implying a life that haunts like a ghost.
Poetic Definition: The haunting feeling of an unlived life – a path you didn’t take or a self you never got to be. It lingers at the edges of your consciousness, a bittersweet phantom of what might have been.
Tone and Texture: Haunting and introspective, gently sorrowful with a touch of wonder. It’s like seeing a faint reflection of yourself in a dark window and recognizing the person you could have become in another world.
Usage Context: Whenever he passed the art school, he felt his ghostlife beside him – an artist self he never became, walking wordlessly at his shoulder, reminding him of dreams he left behind.
Synchromyst
Etymological Origin: From synchrony (alignment in time) + mystic, suggesting a mystical coincidence.
Poetic Definition: The feeling that a coincidence or moment is imbued with deep personal meaning by the universe; an eerie, enchanted sense that unseen forces orchestrated an event just for you.
Tone and Texture: Enchanted and wonderstruck, with a glint of the uncanny, like stumbling upon a secret note left by fate. It’s thrilling yet calm, a quiet conviction that magic is afoot.
Usage Context: It felt like pure synchromyst that just as she whispered his name, her phone rang with his call. The timing was so uncanny that she hung up with her heart racing, convinced the cosmos had winked at her.
Beliefquake
Etymological Origin: From belief + earthquake, implying a quake in one’s beliefs.
Poetic Definition: A destabilizing upheaval when a foundational belief is shaken or collapses; the turmoil and disorientation that follow when something you were sure of crumbles beneath you.
Tone and Texture: Jarring and turbulent, yet potentially transformative – frightening like an earthquake, but carrying the possibility of a new landscape once the shaking stops.
Usage Context: Learning of the scandal in her beloved mentor’s past sent a beliefquake through her – everything she had taken as solid ground about their moral integrity suddenly shook, and she wasn’t sure what would stand when the tremors ceased.
Omnibliss
Etymological Origin: From omni (all) + bliss, meaning all-encompassing bliss.
Poetic Definition: A transcendent state of euphoria in which you feel at one with the entire universe; an all-encompassing bliss where the boundaries between self and the world dissolve in a sense of unity.
Tone and Texture: Radiant and profound, full of lightness and peace, as if every part of the cosmos is humming in harmony through your being. It’s a holy calm, ecstatic yet serene.
Usage Context: Lying on the grass under endless stars, she drifted into omnibliss – a wordless joy where she felt connected to every leaf, every planet, every heartbeat in the dark summer night.
Omniyearn
Etymological Origin: From omni (all) + yearn, literally “yearning for all (things).”
Poetic Definition: An overwhelming longing to experience everything life has to offer. It’s the ache of a soul that wants to live infinite lives, to see all sights, feel all emotions, and know every story, knowing painfully well one life isn’t enough.
Tone and Texture: Expansive and restless, hopeful yet frustrated – a burning hunger with the sorrow of limitation. It’s like an open road in every direction calling you at once, exhilarating and impossible to follow.
Usage Context: As she flipped through the atlas, an omniyearn seized her – a fierce wish that she could sprout a hundred pairs of wings and explore every corner of the earth in a single lifetime.
Relational States
Alonecrowd
Etymological Origin: From alone + crowd, indicating being alone in a crowd.
Poetic Definition: A loneliness that blossoms amid company; the sense of being isolated and unseen even as people swirl all around you.
Tone and Texture: Forlorn and disconnected – a hollow quiet in the heart despite the surrounding noise. It’s like standing in a festive party where the music and laughter seem to come from far away, unable to reach you.
Usage Context: He forced a smile at the bustling reunion, but an hour in he felt alonecrowd – surrounded by familiar faces yet utterly isolated, as if a pane of glass separated him from everyone else.
Heartphantom
Etymological Origin: From heart + phantom, implying a ghost in the heart.
Poetic Definition: The lingering presence of someone who’s gone, felt as an echo in your heart; when a person is absent but you still sense them in the spaces they used to fill, like an emotional phantom limb.
Tone and Texture: Haunting and tender – both comforting and aching. It’s the warm emptiness of feeling someone’s outline in your life even after they’ve left.
Usage Context: Months after the breakup, she sometimes woke reaching for him – a heartphantom pain that made her chest tighten with equal parts loss and a strange, solace-giving memory of what used to be.
Hushbond
Etymological Origin: Blend of hush (silence) + bond, referring to a bond in quiet.
Poetic Definition: The deep connection felt in silence between two people; a wordless understanding where simply sharing the quiet together is as intimate as any conversation.
Tone and Texture: Calm and warm, softly glowing with trust. It’s the feeling of a shared blanket on a cold night, peaceful and secure in mutual presence without needing to speak.
Usage Context: They sat on the porch in a comfortable hushbond, watching the stars. Not a word passed between them, but in that gentle silence they felt closer than ever.
Friendfall
Etymological Origin: From friend + fall (fall away), suggesting a friendship fading.
Poetic Definition: The gradual drifting apart of friends without a clear reason or fight; a quiet, sad process where someone once close slowly becomes distant until they’re practically a stranger.
Tone and Texture: Mournful and gentle, like the last leaves of autumn falling without a sound. It’s a natural but poignant loss, tinged with regret and nostalgia.
Usage Context: Their weekly meet-ups became monthly, then yearly, then not at all – not due to anger, just life. It wasn’t dramatic, but the friendfall left her wistful, wondering how someone who had been like a sister could fade away.
Bitterproud
Etymological Origin: From bitter + proud, indicating pride with bitterness.
Poetic Definition: A conflicted feeling of pride in someone’s achievement or growth that is marred by a sting of bitterness, perhaps because it leaves you behind or highlights your stagnation.
Tone and Texture: Sharp and aching yet tinged with golden warmth, like a congratulatory smile that quivers with held-back tears. It celebrates even as it hurts.
Usage Context: When his younger brother bought a house, he was bitterproud – truly delighted to see him succeed, yet nursing a quiet hurt that he was still struggling to find his footing.
Friendlorn
Etymological Origin: Portmanteau of friend + forlorn, meaning forlorn due to missing a friend.
Poetic Definition: A deep sadness and longing caused by the absence or loss of a friend; the ache for companionship that used to be there, missing a platonic bond as intensely as a lost romance.
Tone and Texture: Lonely and yearning, softly melancholic – like looking at an old photo that warms your heart and breaks it at the same time.
Usage Context: Seeing the empty chair at their usual cafe spot left him friendlorn, missing the buddy who used to fill that seat with jokes and easy laughter.
Soulknit
Etymological Origin: From soul + knit, suggesting souls knitted together.
Poetic Definition: The sense of two people’s souls being deeply intertwined in understanding and affection; an intimate connection where you feel bound together beyond logic or distance.
Tone and Texture: Warm and profound, with an almost sacred calm, like two voices harmonizing perfectly, distinct but united. It’s comforting with a touch of awe at the depth of the bond.
Usage Context: After weathering so many storms together, an unspoken soulknit bound the sisters – they could sit in silence for hours and still converse in the language of shared glances and knowing smiles.
Onceclose
Etymological Origin: From the phrase “once close,” indicating someone who used to be close.
Poetic Definition: The awkward, bittersweet dynamic between two people who were once very close but are now essentially strangers. It’s the emotional distance you feel when you meet again and realize the intimacy you shared is gone.
Tone and Texture: Bittersweet and uneasy, like a familiar melody played out of tune. It carries nostalgia in one hand and discomfort in the other, a polite frost over what used to be warm.
Usage Context: Running into her childhood best friend after a decade was onceclose incarnate – they exchanged small talk and polite smiles, both acutely aware of how much warmth had faded into gentle, regretful formality.
Fleetingbond
Etymological Origin: From fleeting + bond, meaning a bond that is fleeting.
Poetic Definition: A brief, intense connection with someone – often a stranger – that feels meaningful in the moment but is destined to be short-lived. It’s the spark of understanding or kinship that flares up and fades quickly.
Tone and Texture: Bright and ephemeral, like a firefly’s glow – illuminating and beautiful, though you know it won’t last. It’s sweet with a hint of sadness as it passes.
Usage Context: She shared a fleetingbond with the man next to her on the flight – in two hours they traded life stories and laughter as if old friends, then parted with a wave, knowing that shining moment would live on only in memory.
Kinfire
Etymological Origin: From kin (family) + fire, symbolizing the fire of familial love.
Poetic Definition: The fierce, sometimes volatile love among family members; a passionate, stubborn, protective warmth that can both comfort and burn, often flaring in moments of both joy and conflict.
Tone and Texture: Fiery and intense, crackling with both affection and anger at times. It’s never lukewarm – always glowing with warmth or blazing with emotion, but deeply rooted and enduring.
Usage Context: Holiday dinners always reminded her of the kinfire that bound her relatives – they’d argue heatedly one minute and defend each other the next, their love as undeniable as it was tempestuous.
Joylousy
Etymological Origin: Blend of joy + jealousy.
Poetic Definition: The mix of genuine happiness for someone and envy of them at the same time; that paradoxical emotion where you smile at someone’s good fortune while a small, guilty part of you wishes it were yours.
Tone and Texture: Cheerful on the surface with an undercurrent of green-eyed ache – sweet and bitter entwined. It’s like a sugary treat with a hint of sour that you keep hidden behind a gracious grin.
Usage Context: When her best friend announced her promotion, she felt a pang of joylousy – she hugged her and laughed in delight, even as a tiny voice inside whispered questions about her own stalled career.
Thankache
Etymological Origin: From thank (gratitude) + ache, implying an aching gratitude.
Poetic Definition: The painful gratitude toward someone you can never fully repay; a heartfelt thanks so deep it almost hurts, often felt toward those who saved or profoundly changed your life.
Tone and Texture: Warm and sorrowful, heavy with love and a tinge of helplessness. It’s like an embrace that’s too tight – full of devotion but tinged with the ache of indebted emotion.
Usage Context: She felt a thankache whenever she thought of the donor who gave her father a heart – every extra day with him was a gift, and her gratitude was so profound it made her eyes well up with tears.
Aftersoul
Etymological Origin: From after + soul, suggesting “after a soulful moment.”
Poetic Definition: The emptiness or drift one feels after a deeply soulful or intimate conversation or experience ends, and you return to ordinary life. It’s the quiet, hollow feeling of coming down from a meaningful high.
Tone and Texture: Quietly forlorn and reflective, like the stillness after music stops. It has a pale glow of memory and a shadow of loneliness – the soul catching its breath in the sudden silence.
Usage Context: Driving home in silence after their long midnight talk, he felt an aftersoul set in – the world outside seemed flat and mundane after the heights of connection they had shared just moments before.
Heartquiver
Etymological Origin: From heart + quiver (to tremble).
Poetic Definition: The trembling excitement and anxiety of slowly falling in love; a tender flutter in the heart that is equal parts joy and vulnerability.
Tone and Texture: Delicate and hopeful, tingling with nervous energy – like the first petals opening in spring while a breeze makes them shiver. It’s exhilarating but fragile, a giddy shake in the chest.
Usage Context: Sitting next to him watching the movie, she felt a heartquiver each time their shoulders brushed – a delightful, trembling awareness that something new and beautiful was blooming between them.
Sorrowsalve
Etymological Origin: From sorrow + salve (a healing ointment).
Poetic Definition: The bittersweet relief of forgiving someone who hurt you, easing the pain while leaving a faint scar; a healing balm on the wound of a grudge, soothing even if the memory still stings a little.
Tone and Texture: Gentle and healing, with a lingering note of sadness, like cool balm on a burn. It’s comforting and warm, though a tender sensitivity remains where the hurt once was.
Usage Context: When she finally said “I forgive you,” a sorrowsalve washed over them both – her heart lightened, the tension broke, and though a tender spot remained, the pain began to dissolve.
Intimisolation
Etymological Origin: Portmanteau of intimate + isolation.
Poetic Definition: The feeling of being emotionally alone even in the presence of someone you love; a solitude that exists side-by-side with togetherness, often because something important remains unshared.
Tone and Texture: Quiet and cold in the midst of warmth – a single candle flickering in a large, dark room. It’s the ironic loneliness that grows not from absence, but from unspoken distance despite physical closeness.
Usage Context: They lay side by side, their backs almost touching, in a state of intimisolation – together but not really, each lost in private thoughts, longing for the courage to speak and bridge the silent gap.
Jestalgia
Etymological Origin: From jest (joke) + nostalgia.
Poetic Definition: A nostalgic longing triggered by an old shared joke or silly memory; a sweet ache for the time when that jest was born, now that laughter has faded into the past.
Tone and Texture: Bittersweet and playful, like a faded comic strip that once made you laugh aloud. It’s warm with memory yet tinged with the sadness of things that can never be exactly the same.
Usage Context: He found a goofy doodle they drew in math class and was hit with jestalgia – he chuckled at the inside joke, then felt a lump in his throat knowing those carefree school days with his friend were gone.
Mundamour
Etymological Origin: From mundane + amour (French for love).
Poetic Definition: The comfortable, routine love in a long-term relationship that is warm and reliable but perhaps lacking in novelty or passion. It’s the affectionate everyday love that feels like home.
Tone and Texture: Warm, mellow, and a touch stagnant – like a well-worn sofa that fits your shape. It’s comforting and safe, though its familiarity can sometimes dull into gentle boredom.
Usage Context: After twenty years of marriage, their romance had settled into a mundamour – they shared quiet dinners and predictable jokes. It wasn’t thrilling, but each ordinary day together was a testament to a love that had weathered every season.
Fragilove
Etymological Origin: From fragile + love.
Poetic Definition: A powerful love that comes with a constant undercurrent of worry, as if you’re holding something very delicate. The more you care, the more vulnerable you feel, always slightly afraid of loss or harm.
Tone and Texture: Precious and anxious, both radiant and trembling – like cradling a tiny bird in your hands. It glows with devotion but shivers with the knowledge of how easily everything could shatter.
Usage Context: When their baby was born, he knew fragilove for the first time: a fierce, all-consuming adoration laced with sleepless nights of checking the crib just to be sure she was still breathing.
Mirrorloss
Etymological Origin: From mirror + loss, implying a loss reflected back on oneself.
Poetic Definition: The feeling of losing a part of yourself when someone who reflected that part of you is gone; mourning not only the person, but also the version of you that only existed in your relationship with them.
Tone and Texture: Profound and sorrowful, with an introspective stillness, like standing in front of a mirror and seeing it half-darkened. It’s the quiet grief of a diminished self, the loneliness of a unique bond gone.
Usage Context: After his older sister died, he felt a deep mirrorloss – she had known him better than anyone, and without her to reflect his stories and laugh at his jokes, he wasn’t sure who he was in that empty space.
Sensory Experiences
Aromalgia
Etymological Origin: From aroma + -algia (Greek for pain, as in nostalgia), literally “scent-pain.”
Poetic Definition: A bittersweet pang of memory and emotion triggered by a scent; when a simple smell – fresh rain, a familiar perfume, woodsmoke – overwhelms you with nostalgia or longing.
Tone and Texture: Poignant and vivid, warmly haunting. It’s like opening an old photo album carried on the air – a gentle stab of joy and sorrow intertwined.
Usage Context: The scent of cinnamon brought a wave of aromalgia, transporting her back to her grandmother’s kitchen in an instant and filling her eyes with happy-sad tears.
Sunsoothe
Etymological Origin: From sun + soothe.
Poetic Definition: The calm, drowsy comfort of warm sunlight on your skin; that languid sense of peace and contentment that comes from basking in gentle sunshine.
Tone and Texture: Golden and tranquil, cozy as a cat napping in a sunbeam. It’s a soft, hazy warmth that makes your eyelids heavy and your worries melt away.
Usage Context: Lying on the grass one afternoon, he closed his eyes and let sunsoothe wash over him – the world fell quiet and all that mattered was the light, the heat, and the slow breath of summer.
Quietchill
Etymological Origin: From quiet + chill, indicating a cool quietness.
Poetic Definition: The eerie yet peaceful feeling of utter quiet in a place that is usually full of sound; a hush that is at once soothing and a little unnerving.
Tone and Texture: Still and cool, both comforting and unsettling – like walking into an empty cathedral where every footstep echoes. It holds a calm that borders on ghostly.
Usage Context: She wandered the school halls on a Sunday and felt a quietchill – the usual laughter and chatter were absent, and the silence was so profound it was almost alive.
Cadencalm
Etymological Origin: From cadence (rhythm) + calm.
Poetic Definition: A trance-like calm induced by a steady, gentle rhythm; the relaxation that comes from repetitive sounds or movements like rain on the roof, waves on the shore, or the ticking of a clock.
Tone and Texture: Hypnotic and serene, deeply comforting – like being rocked by invisible waves. It’s the kind of peace that can lull you into sleep or daydreams.
Usage Context: The train’s clickety-clack gave her a cadencalm; as the miles rolled by, the steady rhythm of the wheels against the tracks lulled her racing thoughts into a pleasant quiet.
Nightnest
Etymological Origin: From night + nest.
Poetic Definition: The safe, cozy feeling that darkness or nighttime can bring, as if the night itself were a nest you can curl up in. It’s when shadows and stillness offer comfort rather than fear.
Tone and Texture: Quietly protective and intimate – dark but gentle, like being swaddled by the night. It feels secretive in a soothing way, a personal refuge under the blanket of darkness.
Usage Context: Far from city lights, the pitch-black country evenings gave him a nightnest – he’d sit in his porch rocker enveloped by the warm summer night, feeling secure and unseen under the thick blanket of stars.
Harmelation
Etymological Origin: Blending harmony + elation, reflecting musical euphoria.
Poetic Definition: The euphoria that music can evoke as it moves through you; those goosebumps and chills when a melody resonates with your soul, lifting you into a state of bliss.
Tone and Texture: Exhilarating and soulful, tingling with energy, like a wave cresting inside your chest. It’s as if the music itself grows wings in you, both electrifying and liberating.
Usage Context: During the orchestra’s crescendo, a surge of harmelation coursed through him – goosebumps rose on his arms and he felt utterly alive, each note lighting up his nerves with joy.
Aquasolace
Etymological Origin: From aqua (water) + solace (comfort).
Poetic Definition: The womb-like comfort of being submerged in water, where the world’s noise is muted and you feel cocooned. It’s the peace of floating in a pool or drifting beneath the waves, weightless and safe.
Tone and Texture: Deep and muffled, tranquil and enveloping – like returning to a primal cradle. It’s serene and isolating in a nurturing way, with the outside world held at bay by a liquid wall.
Usage Context: Floating just beneath the lake’s surface at twilight, she felt aquasolace – her ears filled with the soft hum of water and her body buoyant, all her stress dissolving into the gentle current.
Cityswarm
Etymological Origin: From city + swarm, suggesting a swarm of city life.
Poetic Definition: The overwhelming buzz and press of a busy city on your senses, when lights, noises, and crowds meld into one engulfing presence that surrounds and carries you along.
Tone and Texture: Vibrant and chaotic, both energizing and overpowering – like standing in the middle of a neon-lit hive. It tingles with excitement even as it exhausts, a living pulse of urban life.
Usage Context: Stepping out of the subway into Manhattan, she was hit with cityswarm – honking taxis, throngs of people, snatches of music and conversation all fused into a single exhilarating rush that took her breath away.
Beautystasis
Etymological Origin: From beauty + stasis (a state of stillness).
Poetic Definition: A moment when something beautiful arrests time itself; you are so captivated that for an instant everything else stops and there is only the beauty, suspended in eternity.
Tone and Texture: Transfixed and luminous, intensely present – like a drop of amber preserving an insect, you are caught in wonder. It’s peaceful and awe-struck, time slowed to a heartbeat.
Usage Context: As the sun broke through the clouds over the valley, he experienced beautystasis – the golden light on the distant hills was so breathtaking that he forgot to breathe, and the world around him fell utterly silent.
Heartclench
Etymological Origin: From heart + clench, indicating the heart clenching tight.
Poetic Definition: The physical feeling in the chest when an emotion hits you hard – a sudden tightness or ache, as if the heart itself is squeezing or knotting up, whether in joy, sorrow, or fear.
Tone and Texture: Intense and visceral, startling in its immediacy – like a fist closing around a flower. It’s momentary but memorable, leaving you breathless in the wake of feeling.
Usage Context: When she saw the old couple holding hands, a heartclench caught her — a sharp, sweet ache of longing and hope that was almost painful in its suddenness.
Seasonsoul
Etymological Origin: From season + soul.
Poetic Definition: The deep mood or nostalgia stirred by a particular season, when a time of year resonates with your spirit and brings specific emotions or memories floating to the surface.
Tone and Texture: Reflective and atmospheric, rich with memory. Each season casts a unique hue on the soul – be it the wistful gold of autumn or the bright, expectant green of spring.
Usage Context: Every October he was overcome by seasonsoul – the smell of woodsmoke and sight of falling leaves filled him with a sweet melancholy, as if the autumn air carried echoes of all his past falls.
Soulfrisson
Etymological Origin: From soul + frisson (French, a brief intense shiver of emotion).
Poetic Definition: A thrilling shudder that runs through you when something moves you deeply; those goosebumps and tingles that are not from cold, but from a sudden emotional or spiritual resonance.
Tone and Texture: Electric and profound, brief but significant – a lightning flash of feeling that reminds you of your capacity for awe. It’s sharp yet pleasurable, leaving you awakened.
Usage Context: She felt a soulfrisson during the choir’s final hymn – a tingling wave from her scalp to her fingertips, as if the music had reached in and strummed the very core of her being.
Forefeel
Etymological Origin: From fore (before) + feel, literally “feeling beforehand.”
Poetic Definition: A tangible sense of anticipation or change in the air, felt in the body. It’s the prickle on your skin or the knot in your stomach when something unseen but significant is about to happen.
Tone and Texture: Tense and expectant, crackling quietly with energy, like the charged air before a thunderstorm. It’s both exciting and unsettling, the body knowing before the mind does.
Usage Context: There was a forefeel in the house that morning – an uncanny prickle at the edge of her awareness. She couldn’t explain it, but some part of her sensed that before nightfall, their lives would be different.
Echovoid
Etymological Origin: From echo + void, indicating an empty echoing space.
Poetic Definition: The uncanny emptiness of a space that is usually full of sound and life. It’s the hollowness you hear in a vacant hall or street – an absence so loud it feels like a presence.
Tone and Texture: Eerie and poignant, softly echoing. It’s like a familiar song with all the notes removed, leaving behind only the pauses that make you aware of what’s missing.
Usage Context: She stepped into the empty gymnasium and felt an echovoid – her footsteps rang out in the space where cheers and bouncing balls used to echo, the quiet amplifying the ghost of yesterday’s energy.
Stormcozy
Etymological Origin: From storm + cozy, reflecting coziness during a storm.
Poetic Definition: The snug comfort of being safe and warm indoors during a storm; the heightened coziness you feel when chaos rages outside but you are tucked inside with blankets and cocoa.
Tone and Texture: Snug and reassuring, gently joyful – like a soft glow behind windowpanes streaked with rain. The wild drumming of rain only deepens the sense of shelter and gratitude in the warmth.
Usage Context: Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, but curled up on the couch under a thick quilt, she felt stormcozy – each howl of wind outside only made her nest of warmth feel more enchanting.
Snugstifle
Etymological Origin: From snug (comfortably tight) + stifle (to smother or suppress).
Poetic Definition: The mixed sensation of a tight embrace or enclosed space that is both comforting and a little smothering; being loved or cozy to the point of feeling briefly suffocated.
Tone and Texture: Warm and heavy, loving but claustrophobic – like being wrapped in a thick blanket that’s almost too hot. It’s security with a hint of constraint, affection that almost takes your breath away.
Usage Context: His grandmother’s hug was a snugstifle – he felt swaddled in love and safety, even though her arms squeezed him so tightly he had to gasp for air when she finally let go.
Sreamdawn
Etymological Origin: From dream + dawn, indicating the dawn after a dream.
Poetic Definition: The vivid, otherworldly clarity that lingers just after waking from a powerful dream. In that early moment, the world feels slightly unreal, and pieces of the dream still cling to your mind like morning mist.
Tone and Texture: Liminal and enchanting, slightly disorienting – a soft glow of unreality edges everything, as night’s imagination gently bleeds into the day’s reality.
Usage Context: In the dreamdawn after he awoke, the characters from his nightmare seemed to lurk in the shadows of his bedroom. For a few breaths, he moved through a world that wasn’t fully day or night, until reality gradually took hold.
Motionlull
Etymological Origin: From motion + lull, implying being lulled by motion.
Poetic Definition: The sleepy, hypnotic calm that comes from gentle, repetitive movement; the way a car ride, a rocking chair, or a boat’s sway can soothe you into drowsiness and peace.
Tone and Texture: Gentle and soporific, comforting as a cradle – a swaying, rhythmic ease that quiets the mind and wraps you in a drowsy hug.
Usage Context: The long train journey home gave him a motionlull – the steady clack of the rails and the soft rocking of the carriage lulled his anxious thoughts, and he found himself nodding off with a sense of contentment.
Terrawhelm
Etymological Origin: From terra (Latin for earth) + overwhelm.
Poetic Definition: The overwhelming awe and humbling wonder felt when confronting a grand natural landscape. It’s that breath-stealing sensation standing before mountains, oceans, or a starry sky – nature’s beauty overpowering you.
Tone and Texture: Majestic and humbling, exhilarating with an undertow of insignificance. It’s like a wave crashing over you – powerful, breathtaking, and leaving you feeling tiny yet grateful to be part of something so vast.
Usage Context: She gazed out at the Grand Canyon and felt terrawhelm set in – her knees weak at the immensity of it all, her heart swelling with awe and a strange comfort at being just a small creature in the grandness of nature.
Mirrorfade
Etymological Origin: From mirror + fade, suggesting the fading of self-recognition in the mirror.
Poetic Definition: The disquieting feeling when you stare at yourself in the mirror for too long and begin to feel disconnected from your reflection; the sense that the familiar face looking back is becoming strange, as if you’re momentarily unsure “who” you are seeing. Tone and Texture: Unsettling and ghostly, fleetingly surreal – a soft creepiness that sends a chill down your spine, prompting you to look away and reconnect with reality.
Usage Context: There was a hint of mirrorfade in the bathroom at 3 AM – she caught her own gaze in the mirror and, for a split second, felt like she was looking at a stranger. She shook her head and turned on the lights, breaking the eerie spell.