Pronunciation: /ˈvɛl.ɪ.kɔːr/ Part of speech: noun Definition: The strange, wistful nostalgia that washes over you when you step into a used bookstore, surrounded by aging paper and the quiet histories of books that have already lived their lives in someone else's hands. Etymology: *Vellichor* is a 21st-century neologism, first coined around 2013 by writer John Koenig for his project The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a lexicon of invented words for unnamed emotions. The word is built from Latin *vellus* (meaning "fleece" or "parchment") and the Greek *ichor*, the ethereal fluid said to flow in the veins of the gods, lending the invented word both a bookish and a mythological resonance. Though it appears in no standard dictionary, it has spread widely through literary communities and social media since its creation. Synonyms: nostalgia, wistfulness, longing, reverie, melancholy, saudade In a sentence: She had only meant to browse for a moment, but the vellichor_ of the cramped little shop held her there for two hours, pulling volume after yellowed volume from the shelves.