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.

Aimonomia

close-up of a plant with lights glowing in background

Fawtle

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

Feresy

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

Skidding

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

Addleworth

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

Midsummer

a person standing in a garden holding a clock