Pronunciation: /ˈvɛl.ɪ.kɔːr/ Part of speech: noun Definition: The strange, wistful melancholy one feels inside a used bookstore, arising from the sense that thousands of old books stand locked in their own eras, each one a room the author quietly abandoned long ago. Etymology: *Vellichor* is a 21st-century neologism <cite index="9-9">coined by John Koenig as part of his *Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows*, a project dedicated to coining words for emotions that lack precise descriptors.</cite> <cite index="9-10">Koenig built the word by combining the Latin *vellum* (parchment made from animal skin) with *ichor*, the ethereal fluid said to flow in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology.</cite> <cite index="5-1">Some scholars suggest that the related word *petrichor* (coined in 1964 from *ichor* with a prefix from Greek *petros*, stone) served as an inspiration, with the first part replaced by *vellum*.</cite> Synonyms: bibliomancy, nostalgia, hiraeth, saudade, wistfulness, dustiness In a sentence: She had only meant to duck in out of the rain, but the vellichor of the cramped little shop held her there for an hour, running her thumb across spines she would never have time to open.