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.

Pax Latrina

Cover image for the Pax Latrina word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Falesia

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

Lilo

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

Anecdoche

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

Fitzcarraldo

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

Solysium

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