/ˈfɛr.ɔr/
noun · uncountable · etym: old noemic ferr- (to almost-carry) + -or · cf. fervour, terror, error
the wash of recognition when a stranger turns out to be someone you almost knew.
ferror moves faster than thought and slower than blood. it begins in the chest; it does not always reach the face. one notices it at the station, in the corridor outside an unfamiliar room, in the slight hesitation of a stranger turning the same corner twice.
philologists working out of the library note that ferror is distinct from déjà vu in that it concerns persons, not places, and from embarrassment in that it does not require speech. the older usage is intransitive: one ferrors; one does not ferror anything.
in a sentence: "i had a small ferror at the bakery — the woman in front of me could have been my aunt, twenty years younger, or no one."
see also · dimmerwhat nullabye memory witness