lachesism

English

Etymology

Coined by American author and neologist John Koenig, creator of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, with reference to the Ancient Greek goddess Lachesis, the Fate responsible for alloting the span of each mortal's life.

Noun

lachesism (uncountable)

1. (neologism, rare) The yearning for the clarity or reprioritisation afforded by surviving a disaster.
   • 2015, Johnny Close, Eco-Lonely, page 110:

     I'd always been fascinated by lightning and had always had an unexplainable lachesism. I'm not sure why I had this desire to be struck by disaster and survive, to be struck by lightning in fact, […]

   • 2019, Jonna Wahl, Bloody Bloom, unnumbered page:

     "What if I become just another flower on the side of the road?" I looked to him, shaking uncontrollably yet strangely calmed by an underlying sense of lachesism.

   • 2021, "Sketching", The Designing Linguist, Issue #1 (2021), page 5:

     In that sense, we can probably say that the Covid-19 pandemic, which put the world on hold for over a year, satisfied our collective lachesism.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:lachesism.