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.

Chrysalism

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

Halfwise

a train coming towards the camera shot from the tracks

Offtides

close-up of a chromed metal object

Fitching

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

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

Idlewild

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