This TED Talk features writer John Connick, recorded live at TEDx Berkeley, 2016.

Today I want to talk about the meaning of words, how we define them and how they, almost as revenge, define us.

The English language is a magnificent sponge. I love the English language. I'm glad that I speak it.

But for all that, it has a lot of holes. In Greek, there's a word locusism, which is the hunger for disaster.

You know, when you see a thunderstorm on the horizon, and you just find yourself rooting for the storm.

In Mandarin, they have a word U-Yi, I'm not pronouncing it correctly,

which means the longing to feel intensely again the way you did when you were a kid.

In Polish, they have a word juska, which is the kind of hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head.

And finally, in German, of course in German, they have a

word called zeal schmertz, which is the dread of getting what you want.

Of finally fulfilling a lifelong dream.

I'm German myself, so I know exactly what that feels like.

Now, I'm not sure if I would use any of these words as I go about my day,

but I'm really glad they exist.

But the only reason they exist is because I made them up.

I am the author of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows,

which I've been writing for the last seven years.

And the whole mission of the project is to sort of find holes in the language of emotion and try to fill them so that we have a way of talking about

all those human peccadillos and quirks of the human condition

that we all feel but may not think to talk about because we don't have the words to do it.

And about halfway through this project, I defined Sonder, the idea that we all think of ourselves as the main character

and everyone else is just extras. But in all think of ourselves as the main character and everyone else is

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