Litost: this Czech term means 'a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery' ref: Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Light

Litost: this Czech term means 'a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery' ref: Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, remarked that “As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it.” https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/submission/3276/Litost https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/submission/3276/Litost See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictionary_of_Obscure_Sorrows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictionary_of_Obscure_Sorr... My two cents: It's not necessary to have a single word although it is nice for shorthand purposes. For example in litost above, the multiword description will do.