also flash-back, 1903 in reference to fires in engines or furnaces, from verbal phrase (1902), from flash (v.) + back (adv.). Movie plot device sense is from 1916. The hallucinogenic drug sense is attested in psychological literature from 1970, which means probably hippies were using it a few years before.

"toward or of the west," late Old English westerne "western, westerly, coming from the west," from west + -erne, suffix denoting direction. The noun meaning "book or movie about the Old West" is first attested 1909. Westerner is from 1837 as "person from the U.S. West," 1880 as "Euro-American," as opposed to Oriental.

"practice or hobby of dressing as a character from a movie, book, or video game, especially one from Japanese manga and anime," 1993, according to Merriam-Webster, from costume (n.) + play (n.), based on a Japanese word formed from the same English elements and alleged to date from 1983. Also used as a verb.

"to shield from punishment, protect from inconvenience or danger; to conceal," late 15c., from screen (n.). Meaning "sift by passing through a screen" is by 1660s; the meaning "examine systematically for suitability" is from 1943, a word from World War II. The sense of "release a movie" is from 1915. The U.S. sporting sense is by 1922. Related: Screened; screening.

c. 1300, "act or operation of burning," from Old English bryne, from the same source as burn (v.). Until mid-16c. the usual spelling was brenne. Meaning "mark or injury made by burning" is from 1520s. Slow burn is attested by 1938, in reference to U.S. movie actor Edgar Kennedy (1890-1948), who made it his specialty.

1680s, "ear trumpet for the hard-of-hearing," coined from Greek mikros "small" (see micro-) + phōnē "sound," from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say." The notion is "instrument for augmenting small sounds." Modern sense of "transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal" is by 1924 in radio broadcasting and movie recording, from the earlier sense "amplifying telephone transmitter" (1878). Of the two spellings of the short form of the word, mike (1924) is older than mic (1961). Related: Microphonic; microphony.

"publicity or press agent," 1945, also by that year as a verb, said to have been coined at show biz magazine Variety (but the first attested use is not in Variety) and supposedly from name of Gene Flack, a movie agent, but influenced by flak. There was a Gene Flack who was an advertising executive in the U.S. during the 1940s, but he seems to have sold principally biscuits, not movies.

early 14c., monstre, "malformed animal or human, creature afflicted with a birth defect," from Old French monstre, mostre "monster, monstrosity" (12c.), and directly from Latin monstrum "divine omen (especially one indicating misfortune), portent, sign; abnormal shape; monster, monstrosity," figuratively "repulsive character, object of dread, awful deed, abomination," a derivative of monere "to remind, bring to (one's) recollection, tell (of); admonish, advise, warn, instruct, teach," from PIE *moneie- "to make think of, remind," suffixed (causative) form of root *men- (1) "to think."

Abnormal or prodigious animals were regarded as signs or omens of impending evil. Extended by late 14c. to fabulous animals composed of parts of creatures (centaur, griffin, etc.). Meaning "animal of vast size" is from 1520s; sense of "person of inhuman cruelty or wickedness, person regarded with horror because of moral deformity" is from 1550s. As an adjective, "of extraordinary size," from 1837. In Old English, the monster Grendel was an aglæca, a word related to aglæc "calamity, terror, distress, oppression." Monster movie "movie featuring a monster as a leading element," is by 1958 (monster film is from 1941).

also sheikh, "head of an Arab family," also "head of a Muslim religious order," and later also a general title of respect, 1570s, from Arabic shaykh "chief," literally "old man," from base of shakha "to grow old." Popularized by "The Sheik," the 1919 novel in an Arabian setting by E.M. Hull, and the movie version, "The Sheikh" (1921), starring Rudolph Valentino, which gave the word its colloquial sense of "strong, romantic lover." The word gave French fits: Old French had it as seic, esceque, and later forms included scheik, cheikh.

also cliffhanger, "suspenseful situation," 1950, a transferred use from an earlier meaning "movie serial" (1937), from cliff + hang (v.). In some U.S. continued-next-week silent cinema serials in the "Perils of Pauline" days, the episode often ended with the heroine "hanging over a cliff from a fraying rope through which the villain was sawing with a dull knife, to be saved by Crane Wilbur or Milton Sills" [Collier's magazine, July 6, 1946].