I happened across the word “kalopsia” while browsing Facebook a few weeks ago. Someone had posted a status update about a graphic dictionary, and “kalopsia” was among the words included. Said graphic dictionary defines the word as:
“delusion of things being more beautiful than they are.”
When I looked the word up on dictionary.com, I got a list of words I might have meant instead. When I checked on merriam-webster.com, the same thing happened, along with this message:
“The word you’ve entered isn’t in the dictionary.”
In a third attempt to learn a little more about this apparently obscure word I was starting to think might not even be real, I simply googled it. While it is absent from dictionary.com and merriam-webster.com, “kalopsia” does appear in the Urban Dictionary. There, its definitions include “condition wherein things appear more beautiful than they are” and “believing that everything that you do not have is better than what you do have,” among references to a death metal band out of New Jersey.
In addition, “Kalopsia” is the title of a song by rock band Queens of the Stone Age. As it turns out, Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys agrees with the definitions I found on Urban Dictionary. He is quoted as telling Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age: “it’s a condition wherein everything seems more beautiful than it actually is.”
So, there you have it. Decide for yourself. Is “kalopsia” a real word, or isn’t it? Either way, you have been linguistically empowered. Go forth with your new word (or not, if you’ve conclude it’s actually not a word).
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