Lítost
Etymology
From Czech, where in ordinary use it means regret, pity, sorrow, or grief. The famous elaborate definition — “a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery” — comes from Milan Kundera in “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting,” who claimed no other language had the word. Honest note: everyday Czech lítost is milder and broader than Kundera’s literary gloss.
noun · /LEE-tost/
A tormented state of grief and self-pity triggered by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.
What it names
That specific anguish when a small humiliation abruptly reveals your whole wretchedness to you, often provoking an urge to lash out.
Example
He couldn’t explain the lítost that swept over him when he fumbled the toast and everyone politely looked away.
Related idea
Plain self-pity is a settled, sometimes indulgent mood; lítost (in Kundera’s sense) is the sharp, sudden shock of seeing your own misery, which is why it can curdle into cruelty.
See also