In quantum mechanics, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is king. It's simple point is that by the simple act of observation, we destroy the feature of the subject we are trying to observe. Obscurity is a similar thing. By writing (and maybe even popularising) on obscure words, we give it popularity that removes the feature we were interested in. But a little paradox has never stopped me.
Here are a few words that you mightn't already word. As a poetry-addict, I am always looking for words that have good synergy with each other (Poetry is about synergy, not power!)
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Ausweglosigkeit (Os-velo-si-kite)
I learned this German word when I was reading Kafka's The Trial. It's literal translation is close to 'Hopelessness'. But rather than being lost in the wilderness of despair, Ausweglosigkeit is more optimistic - it implies to keep going even in the worst of worlds. Here's a poem I wrote in this spirit.
Saudade (Sa-u-da-ji/e)
A friend of mine once had a phase where he was absolutely in love with this word; and the fact that there are so many descriptions out there for which there are no English words. Saudade is a word of Portuguese origin that describes a melancholic longing for something or someone that no longer is.
Sehnsucht (Zehn-nuxt)
I remember this word showing up on my Tumblr a lot, yet I cannot remember my first encounter with it. Sehnsucht, of German origin, is similar to Saudade, the difference being that this one is a melancholic feeling for something that has never happened - a longing for a far-off land or a far-off feeling.
Schadenfreude (Scha-den-Freud)
Schadenfreude is a German word that is a more general version of sadomasochism. It is the pleasure you derive from seeing someone else in pain. My favourite thing about this word is that it rhymes with "thorax-void". Also, for those of you reading this who love Community, I point you to Alternative History of the German Invasion (s04e04) where one of the Germans says "I wish there was a word to describe the pleasure one feels at viewing someone else's misfortune" - now you get the joke, Ha!
Lebenslangerschicksalsschatz (Leben-slanger-shick-sa-salts)
Sticking to this run of German words we've got going, L... (not even to going to bother typing that again) is a word you'll be familiar with if you are a How I Met Your Mother fan; it means 'lifelong treasure of destiny'. It is a word that ought to be reserved in usage for someone you know is the love of your life. It's a mouthful as is Beinaheleidenschaftsgegenstand (Bei-na-hei-le-din-shaft-ge-gen-schtand) - this word you want to avoid. It is that someone or something that is almost L... but not quite. (Ah HIMYM, how I miss you!)
Yar (Yaar!)
This Hindi word is the best in celebrating the spirit of friendship. It literally means "friend" but more impressive than its shortness is that it can almost always be used as an interjection; and its softness, which is impossible to avoid, only goes to raise its beauty. (Yar!)
L'espirit de l'escalier (la-spireet-de-la-escalair)
You know how sometimes you're in the middle of a heated argument and you lose; so you go back home and stand in the shower thinking of the perfect things you could have said? Well, this word of French origin is the problem of thinking of the perfect response too late. So, now you know what it's called. Will not help you think of the perfect response on time but hey.
Sonder (Son-der)
Uncle Whitman writes part 4 of Songs of Myself in the spirit that he is not himself, rather a collection of everyone he's ever met and everything he's ever experienced. This emotion, that everyone we meet has a life of their own, influenced by people and events they have experienced, is Sonder.
Uncle Whitman would have never known the world, it's very recent, invented only in 2012 in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. I remember meditating with my closest friends back home and being overtaken by the power of positivity and of acknowledging the existence of everyone - after all we are all a part of each other's cosmic circles. These circles we must sonder.
Le (L´e)
This is a word from my native language (dzongkha) but it has its roots in classical Tibetan. Le is the reason we all exist and it is the reason how things are the way they are. It is virtue, vice, and karma. The idea of Karma as used in the English dictionary often paints the picture of an almost Newtonian law that all actions have consequences (and it implies that Buddhism agrees with the Golden Rule. It doesn't, the Golden Rule implies that "Fear is the mother of morality" - the central point of Buddhism is that Compassion is the cause of all morality).
Karma is a part of Le. But Le goes beyond because it explains that the Universe started because of Le of all creatures that would come to live in it - used here in the sense of virtue. All of us, even the mighty Buddha must one day succumb to the Le of his misdeeds, no matter how small - used here in the sense of vice. Le is a complicated word that is central to Buddhism itself. But it is enough to know that it is why we exist and why things are.
There are certainly more words out there that are just as beautiful, bringing in the reader similar feelings of respectful loving as these. But in the context of their usage, these are most beautiful to me - but the fallacy of superlatives like 'most' is that there is always an infinity. And in this infinity, I know are more words that are just as beautiful. It is exciting times we live in, how much is out there that I don't know!
I hope you guys enjoyed this piece, if you have words that you know to be obscure, share them here!
