Occhiolism

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The awareness of the insignificance of one's personal experiences in the grand scheme of the universe
2. A profound understanding that others have their own complex lives, often disregarding one's own concerns
3. The realization that others are engrossed in their narratives, rendering one's own worries relatively trivial

Etymology: John Koenig, the American writer behind "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows," coined this term in his 2021 book, and he built it from the Italian "occhiolino," meaning "little eye." That name was given by Galileo to an early prototype microscope in the early 1600s, so the word's roots sit in an instrument for looking closely at very small things. Koenig attached the suffix "-ism" to that Italian base, turning the image of a tiny looking-glass into a general idea. The sorrow he has in mind is the sense of being a small figure among many, the way a person glimpses the lives of strangers through windows, passing conversations or shared streets without ever seeing the whole picture.