backlog

Etymology

It is a compound from English back + log,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} first naming a large log placed at the back of a fire.^[2][3] Etymonline suggests that the later senses, "something stored up" and "arrears of orders", may come from, or have been suggested by, log in its sense of a written record.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large log placed at the back of a fire, to keep it going: 1684, in Increase Mather's Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences, where a spit "came down with the point forward, and stuck in the Back-log".^[2][7][3]

Semantic evolution

The fireside sense belonged mainly to North America, Australia and New Zealand;^[4][8] the Dictionary of American Regional English calls it widespread in the United States,^[7] and the Dictionary of Canadianisms records it in Canada.^[9] The word came to mean a reserve or accumulation, from 1883,^[2][3] and then arrears of orders not yet filled, from 1932, in the Baltimore Sun;^[2][3] this is now the main sense, extended to any pile-up of unfinished work.^[5][8] Merriam-Webster records a verb, to accumulate as a backlog, from 1935.^[5] American slang used backlog for a wife, recorded in 1970.^[10]

Timeline

• 1684 – a large log at the back of a fire.^[2][5][7]
• 1883 – figuratively, a reserve or accumulation.^[2][3]
• 1932 – arrears of unfulfilled orders.^[2][3]
• 1935 – verb, to accumulate as a backlog.^[5]
• 1970 – American slang, a wife.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An accumulation of work not yet done or orders not yet filled: The court is struggling to clear a backlog of appeals.^[5][8][2][4]
2. A reserve or store of something: a backlog of goodwill.^[8][5][2]
3. (chiefly North American) A large log placed at the back of an open fire.^[5][2][4][7]

Verb

1. To accumulate as a backlog.^[5]

Related words

• back
• log
• backstick

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
8. ^ a b c d Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Auckland: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dollinger, Stefan, ed., A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, 3rd ed. (online), Vancouver: University of British Columbia, dchp.arts.ubc.ca
10. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com