back

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bak,^[2][3] inherited from Old English bæc,^[4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *baką.^[4][7][8] It is cognate with Old Saxon bak, Old Frisian bek, Middle Dutch bak, Old Norse bak and Old High German bah.^[6][5][9] Etymonline and Barnhart find no connections outside Germanic,^[4][6] and Orel calls it of unknown origin: a link with Proto-Slavic *bokъ (“side”) is attractive in meaning but difficult in sound.^[8] Köbler refers it to Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to bend, arch”),^[10] and Dictionary.com, more cautiously, to a root meaning "bending".^[11] Barnhart and Klein connect it with bahho (“side of bacon, ham”), the source of bacon.^[6][12] In most other Germanic languages the word was ousted in this sense by relatives of ridge, such as German Rücken, Danish ryg and Swedish rygg;^[4][7] the OED notes that it survives in Dutch only in derivatives such as bakboord (“larboard”).^[5] The adverb is a shortening of aback, from on bæc (“backwards, behind”).^{[4][5][13][14]} The verb and the adjective were formed in English from the noun and the adverb.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The rear surface of the body of a person or animal, from the neck to the end of the spine: Old English, in a psalter and in Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[5] Barnhart dates Old English bæc to about 885.^[6]

Semantic evolution

By about 1375 the back could stand for the whole body as the wearer of clothes, as in "food for the belly and clothes for the back".^[5][4] The back of the hand is recorded from before 1300,^[5] to turn one's back on someone, to ignore them, from the early 14th century,^[4] and the back of a chair from the 1520s.^[4] The general sense of the side of a thing opposite its front appears in Bacon in 1626.^[5] The adverb, shortened from aback, meant "toward the rear" from the late 14th century;^[5][4] "so as to return to a former place" follows by about 1510,^[5] "in return" in Shakespeare (1600) and "into the past" in Steele (1711).^[5] The verb first meant "to clothe" (1362, in Langland, now obsolete);^[5] Etymonline records "to keep back, hinder" from the mid-15th century and "to move backward" from the late 15th.^[4] "To support" is recorded from 1548, first of physical force, then of authority or money,^[5][2] and "to bet on" from 1697.^[5] The adjective added "overdue" (back rent) in 1525 and "belonging to past time" in 1808.^[5] In American football a back is a player behind the line, by 1876.^[4] Many phrases followed: to get someone's back up (1728, from a cat arching its back), the back of beyond (Scott, 1816), to take a back seat (Andrew Johnson, 1868),^[15] on the back burner (by 1960) and to know something like the back of one's hand (Stevenson, 1893).^[4] In dialect a back was also a hill or ridge (Pembrokeshire, Cheshire) and, in Bristol, a strip of wharf.^[16] In American slang a back is a weaker drink served with a stronger one, from 1948.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 885 – Old English bæc, the back of the body.^[6]
• before 1300 – the back of the hand.^[5]
• 1362 – verb, to clothe (now obsolete).^[5]
• c. 1375 – the body as the wearer of clothing.^[5]
• before 1400 – adverb, toward the rear.^[5] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century.^[4]
• 1525 – adjective, overdue, in arrears.^[5]
• 1548 – verb, to support, uphold.^[5][2]
• 1600 – adverb, in return.^[5]
• 1626 – the side of a thing opposite its front.^[5]
• 1697 – verb, to bet on.^[5]
• 1711 – adverb, into the past.^[5]
• 1876 – a player behind the line in American football.^[4]
• 1961 – verb, to accompany a singer.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The rear part of the human body from the neck to the base of the spine: She carried the pack on her back.^[2][18]
2. The corresponding upper part of an animal's body.^[18]
3. The spinal column.^[18]
4. The side or part of something opposite the front, or farthest from the front or least seen: the back of the drawer.^[18][5]
5. The part of a chair or seat that supports the sitter's back.^[4]
6. In some team sports, a player positioned behind the forward line, as in American football.^[4]
7. The body as the wearer of clothes; also the capacity for work or endurance.^[2]

Adverb

1. To or toward the rear: Step back from the edge.^[2][5]
2. At a place behind or away from the front: two miles back.^[2][5]
3. To a former place or condition: She came back home.^[5]
4. In return: to write back.^[5]
5. Into or in the past: back in the 1950s.^[2][5]

Adjective

1. Situated at the back or in the rear: the back gate.^[2][5]
2. Remote from towns or main routes: back roads.^[2]
3. Overdue; in arrears: back taxes.^[2][5]
4. Of an earlier date: back issues of a magazine.^[5]
5. In phonetics, pronounced at the back of the mouth: a back vowel.^[2]

Verb

1. To support or help, often with up: The council backed the plan.^[2][5]
2. To bet on: to back the favourite.^[2][5]
3. To move or cause to move backward.^[4]
4. To provide with a back or lining.^[5][4]
5. In music, to accompany a singer.^[5]

Word family

• backless
• backed
• backer
• aback
• backache
• backhoe
• backward
• mossback

Related words

• bacon

Usage notes

A separate noun back, a large shallow vat used by brewers and dyers, is recorded from 1682 and was probably borrowed from bak (“trough, tub”), from bac.^[5][2][12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins