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.

Fitzcarraldo

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

Adomania

a person riding a horse

Austice

a leaf imprint in the mud

1202

Cover image for the 1202 word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Winnewaw

a person wearing a party hat

Scrough

a person working on the sidewalk