ephemera
things meant to last only briefly
Roots
Other words with the hemer root
- ephemeral: lasting a very short time
- ephemerality: briefness that is already passing
Ephemera are the brief-lived scraps of life: tickets, flyers, notes, programs, little things not built to last.
The museum saved protest posters, train tickets, and other ephemera that people once expected to throw away.
Ephemera gives ephemeral a physical table to sit on. Picture the paper bits of a day: a ticket stub, a handbill, a receipt, a program.
They were temporary, but they can still carry a whole moment. That is the emotional force of this family: brief does not mean meaningless.