Zenosyne
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The sense that time keeps going faster. neologism, uncountable
"This is the obscurest of the sorrows, / Though some say it’s entirely an illusion, / That time must be a constant (our tomorrows / Arriving by the clock, and in profusion), / That time is bound to pay back what it borrows, / Adjusting fast with slow, and in conclusion / We should take heart, adjust our hopes, and be / Prepared to understand zenosyne."
Example
More examples"This is the obscurest of the sorrows, / Though some say it’s entirely an illusion, / That time must be a constant (our tomorrows / Arriving by the clock, and in profusion), / That time is bound to pay back what it borrows, / Adjusting fast with slow, and in conclusion / We should take heart, adjust our hopes, and be / Prepared to understand zenosyne."
Etymology
Coined by American author and neologist John Koenig, creator of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows; a blend of Zeno (“the name of ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea, in reference to Zeno’s dichotomy paradox, which ‘asks how a person can walk from one point to another if they must first cross a seeming infinity of halfway points, which makes their journey look like a series of ever-shrinking steps’”) + Mnemosyne (“the personification of memory in ancient Greek mythology”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.