Merriam-Webster's word of the day is
pareidolia
pronounced pair-eye-DOH-lee-uh
a noun
referring to the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.
Pareidolia entered the English language in 1962. It came from the German word Pareidolie (a combination of the Greek prefix par-, the Greek noun eídōlon, meaning image or reflection, and the German suffix -ie. Although the word seems relatively new to English speakers, the concept is not. Certain Renaissance artists who painted collections of fruits, vegetables, and other objects to look like human portraits, used pareidolia as a technique in their work. Leonardo da Vinci once wrote, “… if you look at any walls spotted with various stains or with a mixture of different kinds of stones, if you are about to invent some scene you will be able to see in it a resemblance to various different landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys, and various groups of hills.”
(taken from Merriam-Webster)
To see it in context or listen to the pronunciation, check the link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day (September 06, 2023).
