alcove
noun · from Arabic al-qubba, “the vault”
a recess set into the wall of a room, made for a bed, a seat or books; a room’s small act of privacy.
Lexicon
Words for light, colour, weather and feeling, many borrowed from other languages, each with its meaning and origin.
A
alpenglow
noun · from German Alpenglühen
the rose light that touches mountain peaks before sunrise and after sunset; daylight’s encore.
ambedo
noun · coined in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
a melancholic trance of absorption in vivid sensory details; raindrops on a window, tall trees leaning in wind.
apricity
noun · Latin
the warmth of the sun in winter; a word for being forgiven by the weather.
argent
adjective · Latin argentum
silvery white; the heraldic name for silver, kept alive on coats of arms.
aubade
noun · French
a song or poem greeting the dawn, or marking lovers parting at daybreak; the morning’s answer to the serenade.
aureate
adjective · Latin aureus, “golden”
golden or gilded; of language, ornate to the point of gleaming.
aurora
noun · Latin
the natural light display of the polar skies, named for the Roman goddess of dawn; the night borrowing the morning’s name.
B
belvedere
noun · Italian, “beautiful view”
a turret, gallery or pavilion built to command a view; architecture with no job but looking.
bole
noun · Latin bolus, “clod of earth”
a soft reddish-brown clay, laid down since the Middle Ages as the ground beneath gold leaf in gilding.
brise-soleil
noun · French, “sun-breaker”
a screen of fins or louvres fixed to a facade to deflect sunlight before it reaches the glass.
brumous
adjective · from Latin bruma, “winter solstice”
grey, misty and wintry; of weather that mutes a landscape.
C
caput mortuum
noun · Latin, “dead head”
a violet-brown pigment named by alchemists for the worthless residue left at the bottom of the flask; the leftovers turned out to be the treasure.
celadon
noun · French
a pale grey-green, the colour of the prized glaze on Chinese ceramics; by tradition, named for a shepherd in a French romance who wore pale green ribbons.
cerise
noun · French, “cherry”
the deep, vivid pink of ripe cherries; taken into English in the nineteenth century, when cherry itself apparently wasn’t enough.
cerulean
adjective · Latin caeruleus, “sky-blue”
a deep sky blue; as a pigment, introduced to painters in the 1860s and prized for skies ever since.
chartreuse
noun · French
a sharp yellow-green named for the herbal liqueur Carthusian monks have distilled since 1737, to a recipe only two monks know at a time.
chrysalism
noun · coined in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
the amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm.
clerestory
noun · Middle English, “clear storey”
a row of windows set high in a wall, above eye level; daylight let in over the heads of everyone below.
cloister
noun · Latin claustrum, “enclosure”
a covered walk around a courtyard, open on the garden side, built for monks to walk and think; architecture for pacing.
coffer
noun · architecture
a sunken panel in a ceiling, vault or dome, set in a repeating grid; ornament made of recession.
commuovere
verb · Italian
to stir, to touch, to move to tears, especially by a story.
coquelicot
noun · French, “corn poppy”
the vivid orange-red of wild poppy petals; in eighteenth-century France, a fashionable shade for ribbons and rouge.
corbel
noun · architecture
a bracket of stone or timber projecting from a wall to carry a weight above; the shoulder a building leans on.
crepuscular
adjective · Latin crepusculum, “twilight”
of or resembling twilight; in zoology, describing animals active at dawn and dusk.
cwtch
noun · Welsh
a hug or cuddle, and the snug safe place that feels like one; shelter, in another person.
D
dolce far niente
noun · Italian, “sweet doing nothing”
idleness enjoyed as a pleasure rather than confessed as a guilt.
duende
noun · Spanish
a heightened state of emotion and authenticity in performance, especially flamenco; originally the name of a household goblin.
E
eau de nil
noun · French, “water of the Nile”
a pale, ambivalent green named after a river that is not actually this colour; proof that a good name outlives accuracy.
enfilade
noun · French
a suite of rooms whose doorways align, so a house opens like a sentence; architecture that lets the eye arrive before you do.
eventide
noun · archaic English
the time of evening; dusk, kept in an older word.
F
falu red
noun · Swedish
the deep red paint made from tailings of the Falun copper mine, covering Swedish cottages since the sixteenth century; a national colour that began as leftovers.
fernweh
noun · German, “far-ache”
an ache for distant places you have never seen; homesickness, pointed outward.
feuillemorte
adjective · French, “dead leaf”
of the brownish orange of a faded autumn leaf.
fika
noun · Swedish
the daily ritual of pausing for coffee and something sweet, taken with company; a coffee break promoted to an institution.
flânerie
noun · French
the art of strolling a city with no destination, observing everything; nineteenth-century Paris promoted it into a literary occupation.
friluftsliv
noun · Norwegian, “open-air life”
the practice of living outdoors in all weathers, held as a way of being.
frisson
noun · French, “shiver”
the sudden thrill that crosses the skin at music or beauty; the body applauding before the mind has voted.
fuchsia
noun · after Leonhart Fuchs
a vivid purplish pink, named for the fuchsia flower, itself named for a sixteenth-century German botanist; a colour wearing two borrowed names.
G
gamboge
noun · named for Cambodia
a saffron-yellow pigment tapped from tree resin, drop by drop, over years; patience, as a colour.
gezellig
adjective · Dutch
cosy, convivial and warm in a way that includes the company as much as the room; the atmosphere hygge is famous for, in the language next door.
glaucous
adjective · from Greek glaukos
of a dull greyish blue or green; in botany, covered with a powdery bloom, as on grapes and plums.
glisk
noun · Scots
a brief gleam of sunlight through cloud; a fleeting glimpse.
gloaming
noun · Scots
the blue half-light between sunset and dark; the day’s long exhale.
gossamer
noun · Middle English, apparently “goose summer”
the fine film of spider silk that drifts through still autumn air, and anything as light or delicate; named for the late mild season it appears.
greige
noun · blend of grey and beige
originally cloth in its unbleached, undyed state; in design, the warm grey in between; a colour defined by declining to choose.
H
halcyon
adjective · Greek
calm, peaceful and golden, of a happy time remembered; from the myth of the kingfisher, said to still the sea while it nested at the winter solstice.
heliotrope
noun · Greek, “sun-turner”
a light violet-pink named for the flower that turns to follow the sun across the sky.
hibernal
adjective · Latin hibernus, “wintry”
of or belonging to winter.
hiraeth
noun · Welsh
a deep longing for a home you cannot return to, or one that never existed.
hoarfrost
noun · from Old English har, “grey with age”
the feathery white ice that grows on branches and glass in still, freezing air; frost old enough to have gone grey.
hygge
noun · Danish
the Danish practice of warmth, shelter and small comforts taken together; cosiness held as a value.
I
incarnadine
adjective · Latin, “made flesh”
a red so total it was once a verb, as in to incarnadine a sea; a colour with a body count.
ineffable
adjective · Latin ineffabilis, “not utterable”
too great or extreme to be put into words; a word for what words can’t do.
isabelline
adjective · after Queen Isabella
a pale grey-yellow, allegedly the colour of the linen she vowed not to change until a siege ended; the shade of a promise kept too long.
J
joie de vivre
noun · French, “joy of living”
a keen, exuberant enjoyment of life, adopted whole into English; cheerfulness, in a dressier coat.
K
kenopsia
noun · coined in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
the eerie stillness of a place usually full of people, found empty.
kilig
noun · Tagalog
the trembling, butterfly rush felt at something romantic; added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2016.
komorebi
noun · Japanese
sunlight strained through leaves, arriving on the ground in pieces; the forest doing stained glass.
L
lambent
adjective · Latin lambere, “to lick”
of light: playing softly over a surface without heat; light that grazes rather than lands.
lexicon
noun · Greek lexikon, “of words”
a dictionary; the complete vocabulary of a language, a person or a field.
l’heure bleue
noun · French, “the blue hour”
the interval between daylight and dark when the sky turns a deep, even blue; prized by perfumers and photographers alike.
loggia
noun · Italian
a covered gallery open to the air on one side, its roof carried on columns.
lucent
adjective · Latin lucere, “to shine”
glowing with light; luminous or translucent.
lunette
noun · French, “little moon”
the half-moon space or window above a door, often filled with glass or painting; the crescent of light a doorway wears.
M
mansard
noun · after François Mansart
a roof with two slopes on each side, the lower one steeper, making rooms of the roof itself; an attic promoted to a storey.
merak
noun · Serbian
the pleasure taken in small, simple things: coffee, company, an unhurried evening; enjoyment at its correct size.
meraki
noun · Greek
doing something with soul, creativity and love; leaving a piece of yourself in the work.
mono no aware
noun · Japanese
a gentle sensitivity to the passing of things; sadness and appreciation felt at once, as at falling blossom.
moonbow
noun · English
a rainbow made by moonlight rather than sunlight, so faint the eye reads it in greys; the night keeps the shape and gives up the colour.
moonglade
noun · English
the bright track of moonlight laid across water; a road no one can take.
moonset
noun · English
the setting of the moon below the horizon, and the time at which it happens; sunset’s quieter twin.
mullion
noun · architecture
a vertical bar dividing the panes of a window; what turns glass into a grid.
mummy brown
noun · English
a rich brown pigment made from ground Egyptian mummies, sold to painters into the twentieth century and discontinued when the supply ran out; a colour that went extinct.
N
nacreous
adjective · from nacre, mother-of-pearl
having a rainbow lustre; nacreous clouds form so high in the polar sky that they keep glowing after sunset; clouds that outstay the light.
natsukashii
adjective · Japanese
the warm, happy nostalgia felt when something small brings the past suddenly close; missing, without the sadness.
noctilucent
adjective · Latin, “night-shining”
of clouds formed so high they catch sunlight from below the horizon and glow long after dark.
O
oculus
noun · Latin, “eye”
a circular opening at the crown of a dome, open to the sky, as in the Pantheon in Rome.
P
patina
noun · Italian
the thin skin age lays down on bronze, leather and wood; wear, promoted to finish.
penumbra
noun · Latin, “almost shadow”
the soft outer edge of a shadow, where light hasn’t fully decided; the most honest part of any silhouette.
petrichor
noun · Greek petra, “stone” + ichor, “the blood of the gods”
the earthy scent of rain on dry ground, released from oils held by rock and soil; named by two Australian scientists in 1964.
phosphene
noun · Greek phos, “light”
the rings and stars of light seen when the eyes are closed and pressed; light made by the eye itself.
portico
noun · from Latin porticus
a porch of columns carrying a roof, marking the entrance to a building; the room before the building begins.
prussian blue
noun · German
the first modern synthetic pigment, made by accident in a Berlin laboratory around 1704 and later the blue of Hokusai’s Great Wave; an accident that became an ocean.
psithurism
noun · from Greek psithuros, “whispering”
the sound of wind moving through leaves; the forest, talking under its breath.
puce
noun · French, “flea”
a brownish purple-red; by court legend, named by Louis XVI for the fleas of Versailles, after a dress of Marie Antoinette’s; an insult that became a fashion.
Q
querencia
noun · Spanish, from querer, “to want”
in bullfighting, the spot in the ring where the bull feels strongest and keeps returning; by extension, the place where one feels most oneself.
R
retrouvailles
noun · French, “refindings”
the joy of reuniting with someone after a long separation; arrival, earned by absence.
rime
noun · Old English hrim
the white ice that forms when freezing fog touches branches, wires and glass; frost built from cloud rather than dew.
S
saffron
noun · from Arabic za‘farān
the orange-yellow of crocus stigmas, the world’s most expensive spice; around 150 flowers picked by hand for a single gram.
saudade
noun · Portuguese
a longing for what’s absent, sometimes for things that never happened; nostalgia with no address.
scheele’s green
noun · after Carl Wilhelm Scheele
a vivid arsenic green used in Victorian wallpapers, dresses and toys until it proved poisonous; by one theory, the pigment that killed Napoleon.
serotinal
adjective · Latin serotinus, “coming late”
of or occurring in late summer; the season already leaning toward autumn.
sfumato
noun · Italian, “smoked”
the painter’s trick of melting edges into smoke, so nothing ends anywhere in particular; the reason the Mona Lisa won’t commit to a smile.
sillage
noun · French, “wake”
the trail of perfume a person leaves in the air after passing; how to stay in a room you’ve already left.
smaragdine
adjective · Latin, “of emerald”
emerald-green, in a word now rarer than the stone.
smultronställe
noun · Swedish, “wild strawberry patch”
the small, half-secret place you return to because it feels like yours alone.
sobremesa
noun · Spanish, “over the table”
the time spent lingering at the table after a meal has finished, talking; the course nobody cooks.
sonder
noun · coined 2012
the realisation that every passer-by is living a life as vivid and complicated as your own; invented in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, and kept because nothing else said it.
spandrel
noun · architecture
the roughly triangular space between the curve of an arch and the frame that contains it; the shape left over, given a name.
sprezzatura
noun · Italian
the art of making difficult things look effortless, practised until the practice disappears; perfection, wearing something casual.
sunshower
noun · English
rain falling while the sun shines; in folklore the world over, the weather of tricksters and fox weddings.
susurrus
noun · Latin
a soft murmuring or rustling, as of whispers, wind or leaves.
T
terroir
noun · French, from terre, “earth”
the complete natural environment of soil, climate and terrain that gives a wine or crop its character.
transom
noun · Latin transtrum, “crossbeam”
the horizontal bar above a door, and the small window over it that borrows light between rooms; light passed over a closed door.
tsundoku
noun · Japanese
the habit of acquiring books and letting them pile up unread; a library of good intentions.
turquoise
noun · French, “Turkish stone”
a bright blue-green named for the stone that reached Europe through Turkish traders; a colour named after its import route.
tyrian purple
noun · after the city of Tyre
the purple-red dye of antiquity, drawn from thousands of murex sea snails for a single gram and worth more than gold; the reason purple still reads as royal.
U
uitwaaien
noun · Dutch, “to blow out”
walking in the wind, deliberately, to clear one’s head; weather as housekeeping for the mind.
ultramarine
noun · Latin ultramarinus, “beyond the sea”
a deep blue ground from lapis lazuli and shipped to Europe from Afghanistan, once costlier than gold; painters saved it for the robes of the Virgin.
umbra
noun · Latin, “shade”
the darkest, innermost part of a shadow, where light is completely blocked; in an eclipse, the zone where day goes dark.
undersong
noun · English
a subdued accompanying sound beneath the main one; the hum a place keeps under its voice.
V
vellichor
noun · coined in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
the strange wistfulness of second-hand bookshops, their shelves full of other people’s time; invented recently, needed for centuries.
verdigris
noun · French, “green of Greece”
the blue-green bloom that copper grows when weather gets to it; the only rust anyone has ever wanted.
vespertine
adjective · Latin vesper, “evening”
of or occurring in the evening; in botany, describing flowers that open at dusk; the working hours of jasmine and moths.
W
wainscot
noun · from Middle Low German, “wagon wood”
wooden panelling lining the lower part of an interior wall, named for the fine wagon-grade oak it was first cut from.
waldeinsamkeit
noun · German, “forest solitude”
the feeling of being alone among trees; solitude with a canopy.
Y
yoin
noun · Japanese, “lingering sound”
the reverberation that remains after a sound has ended; the emotional afterglow an experience leaves behind.
Z
zephyr
noun · Greek
a soft, gentle breeze; in myth, Zephyrus was the west wind, mildest of the four.
No words match.