John Koenig

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And we should actually say that this book, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, is by John Koenig.

Yes.

And

If you've been listening for some time, you may have heard us pull out a word from it here and there.

But this new series is a bit of a fun format where one of us will pick a word and the other one has to try to guess what it might be for the first half of the episode.

And then the second half, it is revealed what the actual definition by John Koenig is.

Then we can have fun talking about that actual definition as well.

Well done.

It's by John Koenig, if I'm saying his name correctly.

It's K-O-E-N-I-G.

And it's basically he started creating words for, I guess you would say, those feelings that we have as humans that maybe didn't have words or the realizations that we might come to that did not yet have words.

There's this book that we'll also put in the show notes that I'm adoring right now.

It's called The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig.

And he's a lexicographer and a poet, and he created new English words for terms that we've all experienced, but we don't really have the language for.

And One of the words best describes why I love hosting and gathering and facilitating.

So, look, it came from, I got the reference from just Google or whatever, but it mentioned the book that first raised this word.

And it was by a guy called John Koenig, K-O-E-N-I-G.

And the book is called The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

Oh, that's a lovely title.

To

inspire you again, I'm going to give you three words from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which, you know, I haven't read in a while, but this is John Koenig.

And these are a couple of really interesting ones.

Galagog, G-A-L-A-G-O-G, which is a state of being simultaneously entranced, and unsettled by the vastness of the cosmos, which makes your deepest concerns feel laughably quaint, yet vanishingly rare.

It's a fun, interesting, and magical way to dive into human emotions.

So the dictionary is written by John Koenig.

And he came up with a number of words to describe experiences that didn't have a word to describe them in English.

And he borrowed from other languages and made up words as well.

This is exactly a word for this feeling.

A writer named John Koenig coined it in his book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

Animoia.

The longing for a time you've never known.

Well, funny, and I, I literally have a copy of the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows right down here next to me.

And John Koenig, uh, creates words for things that didn't have a word for them before.

They can be described, but you know, he famously is the one who coined the term sonder.

The, that feeling you get when you look at other people and realize that they have lives just as complex and, and consuming as you do for your s- for your own life.