noun
The strange, half-haunting, half-comforting sensation of reinhabiting a place you once lived long ago, where forgotten memories are suddenly reawakened by spatial triggers—moments where the past leaks into the present through familiar surroundings.
Etymology:
- Re- (again)
- Tru- (evoking true or truce—a return to some deep, dormant truth)
- -usia (inspired by anhedonia, nostalgia, and the Greek ousía, meaning “being” or “essence”)
The word mimics the cadence of psychological or phenomenological terminology while being rooted in felt experience.
Example Sentence:
Walking past the cracked stairwell of my old apartment, I was overwhelmed with retruisia—like the ghost of a memory I’d forgotten I ever lived.
Notes:
Submitted by Jeff Wielki