Sonder: Definition — noun. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own — populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness — an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you'll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk. (via the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, word created in the English language, 2012)

Yes, I do wonder. I wonder why wonder is said like sunder and wander is said like sonder.

How do I use it grammatically?

I was gripped by sonder?

I experienced a sonder?

The sonder crept up on me?

I was full of sonder.

Can it be a verb?

He finally sondered.

An adjective?

The sonderous man felt sonderous.

The definition:

‘the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own’

Why compare it to my own life? My own life may not be vivid nor complex. Moreover my vivid, complex life may be completely different to your vivid, complex life. Our experiences will be special and unique.

Meaning in German

sonder = special

Meaning in proto indo european

sundraz = isolated separate alone

Could these root words not infer a sense of the life of each passerby being special and unique. Could the meaning delete the words ‘as your own’ to become more accurate and carry more of the feeling of the word itself?

‘the realization that each random passerby is living a vivid and complex life.’

What a beautiful word, what a beautiful creation, what a beautiful addition to the English language.