My dictionary comes out Sunday. 1,935 entries. 673 of the words in it are mine.

Three of those, for what stays after a person goes:

vacuance (VAK-yoo-ants) n. The emptiness a person leaves; vacancy that keeps their shape. He sold the chair at last, but the vacuance kept its tenancy, an emptiness the exact shape of her evening posture.

pulveresce (pul-ver-ESS) v. Of a memory: to go to dust in the hand that lifts it. Her father’s voice had begun to pulveresce, going to dust in the very hand she lifted it with.

fotulous (FOH-tyu-lus) adj. Giving off the warmth of having been held; kept warm by another’s attention. The returned glove was fotulous still, warm with the having-been-held that no cupboard would ever quite launder out.

VOCABULA BARNESIANA: A Dictionary of Coined and Rare English. Hardback August 2, paperback August 3.