sonder

American  

[son-der] / ˈsɒn dər /

noun

1. the feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles.

   In a state of sonder, each of us is at once a hero, a supporting cast member, and an extra in overlapping stories.

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Etymology

Origin of sonder

Coined in 2012 by U.S. writer John Koenig in his blog The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows; perhaps partly based on French sonder “to probe, plumb,” of unclear origin, apparently either akin to sound ³ ( def. ), sound ⁴ ( def. ) or from Vulgar Latin subundāre (unrecorded) “to dive, plunge” (ultimately from sub sub- ( def. ) + unda “wave”); perhaps partly based on German sonder- “separate, special” ( sundry ( def. ) )

Example Sentences

Guests were sent scrambling on Nov. 9 when the hotel-and-apartment rental company Sonder abruptly shut down during their stays.

From The Wall Street Journal

And when they sought help from Sonder workers and loyalty-program representatives at Marriott, which had been offering Sonder rooms under a licensing deal, they discovered that they were sometimes breaking the news.

From The Wall Street Journal

So in August of last year, the world’s largest hotel chain struck a licensing agreement with an upstart short-term rental company called Sonder, whose twist on Airbnb-style booking was to provide guests with hotel amenities at apartment-like units across three continents.

From The Wall Street Journal

Marriott customers, who earned loyalty points by booking Sonder units, liked the option enough that a few thousand were settled into Sonder rooms on Nov. 9 when a puzzling email arrived from Marriott: “We are kindly requesting that you check out of the property as soon as you are able.”

From The Wall Street Journal

“Everything kind of went straight downhill from there,” recalled Cassia Francois, a senior hospitality manager at a Sonder property in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City.

From The Wall Street Journal