zenosyne

English

Etymology

Coined by American author and neologist John Koenig, creator of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows; a blend of Zeno (“name of ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea, in reference to Zeno’s dichotomy paradox, which ‘asks how a person can walk from one point to another if they must first cross a seeming infinity of halfway points, which makes their journey look like a series of ever-shrinking steps’”) +‎ Mnemosyne (“personification of memory in ancient Greek mythology”).

Noun

zenosyne (uncountable)

1. (neologism) The sense that time keeps going faster.
   • 2016, John Fuller, poem 4, in The Bone Flowers: or, Blueprints for a Disappearance, London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, stanza 7:

     This is the obscurest of the sorrows, / Though some say it’s entirely an illusion, / That time must be a constant (our tomorrows / Arriving by the clock, and in profusion), / That time is bound to pay back what it borrows, / Adjusting fast with slow, and in conclusion / We should take heart, adjust our hopes, and be / Prepared to understand zenosyne.

   • 2017, Simonee Modi, “Time”, in Infrequent Musings, Chennai, Tamil Nadu: Notion Press, →ISBN:

     These little hands / On my clock tile, stagnant, / Stare back at me / Aimlessly. / You come around / All in a frenzy then. / They rush into a zenosyne / Tirelessly.

   • 2017, Misty Lown, “The Unconventional Yes”, in One Small Yes: Small Decisions that Lead to Big Results, New York, N.Y.: Morgan James Publishing, →ISBN, section “Zenosyne”:

     The phenomenon of zenosyne has caused me to make some unconventional yes decisions. When my children were babies, I looked forward to a nightly break from parenting and spending time teaching classes with my students. But as my children grew, I understood that I was exchanging the decreasing amount of time I had to raise my own kids for spending my evenings making memories with other people’s children. At the height of my teaching career, zenosyne caused me rethink the hours I was spending in the studio.

   • 2019, Raquel Ríos, “Authentic Presence: Personal Awareness and Self-Mastery”, in Mindful Practice for Social Justice: A Guide for Educators and Professional Learning Communities (Eye on Education), New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, →ISBN, strategy 1 (Contemplation and Meditation):

     As we get older, we experience zenosyne, the feeling that time keeps getting faster and faster. It is a built-in mechanism to remind us that wisdom comes from learning how to appreciate time and to live in the moment.

   • 2020, Priyanka Pareek, “Zenosyne, the sense that time keeps going faster: We are finally all in”, in Amaira, [New Delhi, N.C.T.]: BlueRose Publishers, →ISBN, page 202:

     I went to the podium and took a sip of the water kept on its shelf. That podium looked used and old. Aunt Leela looked at me and I got the sense that she had been thinking about it, as if it was a kind of reminder of something. She must have experienced Zenosyne as I saw lot^{[sic – meaning a lot]} of emotions came over her face. She felt lost somewhere deep in her thoughts.

   • 2021, Sonal Maharana, Gossiping with My Emotions, Chandahandi, Odisha: Inkdew Private Limited, →ISBN, pages VI and 1 (Contents) and 62 (Rare Emotions):

     Part II: Rare Emotions / 31. Sonder / 32. Zenosyne […] You may have experienced those. But you may not know. You may have wondered about their strange flow. But you may not know. Let’s know them now. Let’s start the emotional journey now. Let’s break free and dive deep into the heart. […] Zenosyne: Time keeps going faster / It’s when I feel that time is running faster than my thoughts. It’s when I want to be a kid and time takes me away to adulthood. And this story continues lifelong.

   • 2022, Dominic Milton Trott, “WorldScape: The Wider Context”, in The Drug Users Bible: Harm Reduction, Risk Mitigation, Personal Safety: An Antidote to the War on Drugs, extended edition, [Macclesfield, Cheshire]: MxZero Publishing, →ISBN, section 6 (Culture & Society (Reference)), subsection 2 (Food for the Psychedelic Mind), page 569:

     Over a lifetime it is inevitable that the older you become the less novelty you will encounter and the more habit you will embrace. This is fundamental to the perceived acceleration of time (zenosyne). It follows from this that the intentional introduction of novel episodes at purposely chosen intervals will decelerate time and will extend your life experience, at least retrospectively. Try it.

   • 2022, Aishwarya B. Kurian, “Hiraeth”, in The Epiphany of Words, Rourkela, Odisha: Spectrum of Thoughts, →ISBN, page 152:

     […] That was our playground, / From hockey to football, what was not played, / The Redstone sit outs from older times, were split between kids to play and to hide, / Those were the places where dolls were married, / My hiraeth to my grandmom's house is strange, / After all these years it still stays / Beyond the zenosyne and growing age.