Backmasking

a woman's face with a double exposure

Backmasking

n.
the instinctive tendency to see someone as you knew them in their youth—a burned-in image of grass-stained knees, graffitied backpacks, or handfuls of birthday cake, superimposed on an adult with a mortgage, or children of their own.

In audio recording, backmasking is a technique wherein a sound is deliberately recorded backward, so it’s only intelligible when played in reverse.

Ghough

Cover image for the Ghough word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Pâro

Cover image for the Pâro word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Mottleheaded

Cover image for the Mottleheaded word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Elsewise

Cover image for the Elsewise word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Adronitis

Cover image for the Adronitis word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Beloiter

a person sitting at a slot machine