A selection of words — some from existing languages, some constructed for this collection — describing experiences for which English has no name. All relate, in some way, to presence, absence, and the spaces between them. Invented entries are marked ✦
saudade
/saʊˈdɑːdə/ — n. — Portuguese
A deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Implies love still present for something that is gone.
"She felt saudade not for the corridor she had left, but for the version of herself who had not yet entered it."
JIANGLING ✦
/ˈdʒæŋlɪŋ/ — v. — constructed
The act of finding profound personal meaning in a space that was not designed to contain meaning. The specific experience of being moved by a corridor, a transit hub, a parking structure, or any other purely functional space.
"She stood jiangling in the underpass for twelve minutes, unable to explain why she could not leave."
Named after the phenomenon I have spent my career studying. I am aware of the narcissism. — J.
KORIDORO ✦
/kɒˈrɪdɒrəʊ/ — n. — constructed
The specific anxiety of not knowing whether a corridor will end. Distinct from claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces) in that it relates specifically to the possibility of infinite extension rather than confinement.
"He walked faster, the koridoro rising with each step, until the door appeared at the end and the feeling, instantly, vanished."
mamihlapinatapai
/mɑːmɪˌhlæpɪˈnætəpaɪ/ — n. — Yaghan
A look shared between two people, each wishing the other would initiate something they both desire but neither will start.
"They stood at either end of the corridor sharing mamihlapinatapai — each waiting for the other to walk toward the middle."
RECURSANT ✦
/rɪˈkɜːsənt/ — adj. — constructed
Describing a path that returns to its origin without retracing itself. Distinguished from circular (which implies the same path taken backward) by the implication that the return is accomplished by continuation rather than reversal.
"The corridor was recursant: those who followed it all the way found themselves, impossibly, back at the entrance — but changed."
This is the key term. Everything else in this dictionary is peripheral. — J. | the corridor is recursant. you are currently inside a recursant path. you will recognise the end when you reach it.
torschlusspanik
/ˈtɔːrʃlʊsˌpænɪk/ — n. — German
Literally "gate-closing panic." The fear that time is running out, that doors are closing, that opportunities are passing. Originally used for the anxiety of ageing but extended to any sense of foreclosure.
"She felt no torschlusspanik at the threshold. The corridor did not close. She had always suspected it wouldn't."
INTERSTITIAL ✦ (new usage)
/ˌɪntəˈstɪʃ(ə)l/ — adj./n. — extended English
As extended by this dictionary: describing the specific quality of awareness that arises in transition spaces — not the state of being in-between, but the recognition of being in-between. The moment the corridor becomes visible as a corridor rather than as mere passage.
"She had been interstitial for three years before she acknowledged it. The corridor had been waiting."