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A
The realisation that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as one's own — populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries, and inherited craziness.
— Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
B
Coined by John Koenig in 2012 for The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a project creating words for emotions that had no name.
— TDOS
C
Closely related etymologically to the German sonder, meaning special or apart, though its emotional meaning departs significantly from the source.
— Etymological note
D
The word has since entered informal psychological literature as shorthand for the cognitive experience of recognising other minds as fully real.
— Psychology Today
E
Derived from the French sonder, meaning to probe or sound out depths, reflecting the idea of plumbing the inner life of a stranger.
— Linguistic analysis