backlash

Etymology

It is formed from English back + lash (“a blow, stroke”),^[2][3][4][5] with back used as an adjective or adverb.^[3][4] The noun lash is recorded from about 1300 and is possibly imitative.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In machinery, the jarring reaction or striking back of a wheel or set of wheels when the motion is uneven or pressure is suddenly applied: 1815, in a British patent.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Merriam-Webster dates the verb, to make a backlash, to 1829.^[5] The figurative sense of an excessive or violent reaction is recorded from 1921 in the OED,^[2][4] from 1929 in Etymonline.^[3] The Historical Thesaurus places it among words for an undesired or unintended consequence.^[7] Collegiate and American Heritage dictionaries also record a tangle in a fishing line on the reel,^[8][9] and Merriam-Webster defines the main modern sense as a strong adverse reaction to a political or social development.^[8][5]

Timeline

• 1815 – the jarring reaction of wheels in a machine.^[2][3][5]
• 1829 – verb, to make a backlash.^[5]
• 1921 – figurative, an adverse or violent reaction.^[2]
• 1929 – figurative use, in Etymonline's dating.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong, often hostile reaction against a political or social change: a backlash against the new tax.^[8][5][9][4]
2. A sudden, violent backward movement or recoil.^[5][9][8]
3. Play or slack between adjacent moving parts, as in a train of gears, or the jar caused when they are suddenly set in motion.^[5][9][8][2]
4. A tangle in the part of a fishing line wound on the reel.^[5][9][8]

Verb

1. To make a backlash; to recoil or react sharply.^[5][9]

Word family

• backlasher

Related words

• back
• lash

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin