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The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

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Re: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

#2
Related:

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32676647 - Sept 2022 (2 comments)

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30476541 - Feb 2022 (1 comment)

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10140539 - Aug 2015 (23 comments)

Re: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

#4
> “Mankind has ah only one mm-m-m science,” the Count said as they picked up their parade of followers and emerged from the hall into the waiting room—a narrow space with high windows and floor of patterned white and purple tile.

> “And what science is that?” the Baron asked.

> “It’s the um-m-m-ah-h science of ah-h-h discontent,” the Count said.

-- Dune (1965)

P.S.: That said, I think the author extended "science of discontent" to mean a future-directed practice of making people unhappy to "toughen mankind up", but IMO it works fine as a general observation of past trends.

Re: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

#7
post #5

I just made a reverse-dictionary search for The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (and some of my own words). - Introduction article: https://hails.info/projects/missing-words/ - Search: https://words.hails.info/ Great to see the resurgence of interest!

Excellent! I opened words hail search and right off the bat the default example struck home with me: dolonia

Re: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

#9
> ZIELSCHMERZ

> n. the dread of finally pursuing a lifelong dream, which requires you to put your true abilities out there to be tested on the open savannah, no longer protected inside the terrarium of hopes and delusions that you started up in kindergarten and kept sealed as long as you could.

God I hope I don't fuck it up. But at least I tried.

Re: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

#10

> ZIELSCHMERZ > n. the dread of finally pursuing a lifelong dream, which requires you to put your true abilities out there to be tested on the open savannah, no longer protected inside the terrarium of hopes and delusions that you started up in kindergarten and kept sealed as long as you could. God I hope I don't fuck it up. But at least I tried.

This looks like it's a compound noun derived from the German words Ziel (meaning "goal" in English) and Schmerz (meaning "pain" in English). A raw translation could possibly be "goal-pain," though the true definition has a deeper meaning.
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