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.

Enterhood

adults with stern expressions holding a child

Pithered

stacks of papers and folders piled high on a table

Echthesia

blurry image of two clocks

Lisolia

a bookcase containing objects

Tirosy

a close-up of a young child's face

Alpha Exposure

a close-up of a baby with diffusion filter

Ecury

a close-up of cave drawings and symbols

Yeorie

a woman with tendrils of smoke moving across her face

Énouement

a hand opening a curtain

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

Appriesse

a blurry image of a person looking at mounted images

Daguerreologue

Daguer-reologue

a man sitting in blurred silhouette at a desk

Emorries

a magnifying glass over photos and books

Archimony

a person looking at broken furniture

Blinkback

a wall full of pictures and objects

Walloway

water faucet that seems to emanate from the ground

Zysia

a kite soaring above an empty landscape

Anticious

a group of men in hats looking at elevated signage

Daguerreologue

Daguer-reologue

a man sitting in blurred silhouette at a desk

Elsewise

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

Looseleft

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

Ochisia

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

Achenia

a close-up of a bottle with an organic object inside

Spinning Playback Head

silhouette of a person looking out a window

Hemeisis

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

Merrenness

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

Mogging Folly

a person sitting on a bench