flashback vs throwback

flashback

noun
  • A vivid mental image of a past trauma or other sensation that the trauma is happening in the present, especially one that recurs. 

  • A dramatic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological flow of a narrative. 

  • The condition of the flame propagating down the hose of an oxy-fuel welding system. 

  • A query that operates against data from an earlier time, before it was changed. 

  • A similar recurrence of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug. 

verb
  • To undergo a flashback; to experience a vivid mental image from the past. 

throwback

noun
  • A person or thing that evokes memories. 

  • A reversion to an earlier stage of development. 

  • An atavism. 

  • An organism that has characteristics of a more primitive form. 

  • Coordinate terms: nowhere income, throwout 

  • A person considered to be primitive, uncivilized and mentally deficient. 

  • A practice to avoid untaxed nowhere income by instead taxing such income in the originating state for a given transaction. 

  • A person similar to an ancestor, or something new similar to what already existed. 

How often have the words flashback and throwback occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )