Ideas change everything

Beautiful new words to describe obscure emotions

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John Koenig |

TEDxBerkeley

• February 2016

John Koenig loves finding words that express our unarticulated feelings -- like "lachesism," the hunger for disaster, and "sonder," the realization that everyone else's lives are as complex and unknowable as our own. Here, he meditates on the meaning we assign to words and how these meanings latch onto us.

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Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

John Koenig loves finding words that express our unarticulated feelings -- like "lachesism," the hunger for disaster, and "sonder," the realization that everyone else's lives are as complex and unknowable as our own. Here, he meditates on the meaning we assign to words and how these meanings latch onto us.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxBerkeley, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

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About the speaker

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John Koenig is writing an original dictionary of made-up words.

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Read

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Watch

The YouTube series, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxBerkeley, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.