Definition:
A deep, wistful feeling experienced in old bookstores—a sense of nostalgia, curiosity, and melancholy mixed with the awareness of countless stories and knowledge waiting to be discovered.
Origin:
The word vellichor is a modern neologism, coined by Canadian author John Koenig in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (2012). It is not derived from Latin or Greek; Koenig creates words that sound classical to name emotions that lack established terms in English.
Example sentence:
> As she wandered through the dim aisles of the secondhand bookshop, a quiet vellichor settled over her, as if every shelf whispered memories of lives she’d never lived.
