Iain Banks

Ality
The sneaking feeling, at any public venue or event, that - despite both one’s confident preparations and reasonably held assumptions – one may not in fact be the coolest person present.

Maciation
The worrying suspicion, at any public venue or event, that one is so obviously the coolest person present that where one is, is itself probably not a cool place to be.

Pheunaem
The sensation that the main action is currently elsewhere and would not necessarily benefit from your presence.

Tifle
A nagging doubt that concerns associated with the trivia of one’s appearance or general turn-out – such as a sudden conviction that one’s shoe laces are too tight – are in fact only minor symptoms of a much deeper and more profound malaise which is absolutely certain to inflict serious and lasting damage on your psyche or – courtesy of a long and probably unsuccessful course of analysis – your wallet, or both.

Leitrimme
The sudden realisation that the person you are talking to and for whom you are making a great effort to be charming and witty – in the hope that their superior situation or connections will aid your advancement – is treating you in exactly the same manner, and is therefore (a) not as important as you’d been led to believe, (b) presumably woefully ill-informed and (c) of little further practical value to you, though also (d) of possible sexual interest depending on their gender, your mutual disposition, your own predatoriness and their relative and absolute attractiveness.  (Beware of entertaining the seductive possibility that (e) you are actually much more powerful and influential than you’d thought; this is a trap for the unwary set by fate).