PositiveWashington PostIt’s not all whimsy, and a philosophy of language weaves through the dictionary ... It’s undeniably thrilling to find words for our strangest feelings. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is most compelling when Koenig casts light into lonely corners of human experience ... In a sense all words are made up by someone, at some time. It’s an idea that lends living, breathing languages like ours their precarious charm: The things we say across the breakfast table, or whisper in a lover’s ear, are simply made-up words we’ve deemed useful enough to keep in circulation. \'A word is only real if you want it to be,\' Koenig writes. It’s a defense of language’s endless creative possibility, and a fitting coda to an enchanting book of made-up words turned real.
