Alas

Do you use this word very often?

Nope.

Yep.

It's more a detector on your evel of nerdiness or pretentiousness than an actual dialect, ha, ha.

I think it's more a detector of your level of wistfulness... What else can you say to express that feeling of 'ah, if only it were so... but alas, it is not...'?

Alas, I don't get to use the word 'alas' as much as I would like.

Completely underused word. But then again, it retains some power that way.