flashback

Etymology

It is formed from English flash + back,^[2][3] as a noun use of the verbal phrase flash back,^[4][3][5] which Etymonline dates from 1902.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The backward flash of a flame, as into a blowpipe or the intake of an engine or furnace: 1903, in the Motoring Annual.^[4][3][2]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a technical term for fire flashing back in engines and furnaces.^[3][2] In the cinema it was soon used for a scene that returns to earlier events, recorded from 1916 in Variety,^[4] or from 1915 according to Etymonline, which notes that the technique itself is credited to D. W. Griffith;^[3] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1910–15.^[5] From film it passed to the same device in novels and plays, and to a vivid recollection of past events.^[4][2] In the drug culture of around 1970 a flashback was the return of the effects of LSD or another hallucinogen long after the drug was taken,^[6][3][7] and it then came to be used of vivid, intrusive memories of a traumatic experience such as war.^[6][8]

Timeline

• 1902 – the verbal phrase flash back.^[3]
• 1903 – a backward flash of flame in an engine or furnace.^[4][3]
• 1915 – a scene in a film that returns to earlier events (1916 in the OED).^[3][4]
• 1970 – a recurrence of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug.^[6][3]
• 1984 – a vivid memory of a traumatic past experience, of war service.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A scene in a film, novel or play that interrupts the story to show events from an earlier time, or the use of such scenes as a technique: The second act opens with a flashback to the brothers' childhood.^[2][9][4]
2. A sudden, very vivid memory of a past event, especially a traumatic one, felt as if it were happening again.^[2][8][6]
3. A return of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug such as LSD long after it was taken.^[8][6][7]
4. A backward flash of flame, as into a blowpipe or the intake of an engine.^[2][4][3]

Related words

• flash
• back
• cutback

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
7. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins