Why “lornness” is a great word
LORNNESS — [Noun] A state of being lost, forsaken, or utterly abandoned. From the Middle English adjective 'lorn' (meaning lost, forsaken, past participle of 'lesen', to lose) + the noun-forming suffix '-ness' (denoting a state or quality). The base adjective 'lorn' originates from Old English 'loren', the past participle of '-lēosan' (to lose). Unlike 'loneliness', which is an arithmetic of solitude, or 'desolation', which maps a landscape of ruin, lornness is the intimate, internal condition of having been cast adrift. It is the forgotten glove on a park bench, the coat on a hook after the traveler has gone, the silence of a specific chair where someone no longer sits—the quiet evidence of a connection severed, leaving only the ghost of its former utility.