I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a word of the day style post for a while now; it almost seems like a prerequisite for anyone blogging about writing and literature.
So from this week I shall deem Wednesday Word Day and share with you some of my most beloved obscure, bizarre and beautiful words and their meanings.
Now to use them in a sentence…
Sonder
n. the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.
No idea if this is actually a real word, but I’m completely in love with the concept and live it all the time, especially on train journeys as I gaze out of the window and wonder: “Who is driving that car? Where are they going? Where are they from? What is their life like?”