backside

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bakside, also bakke-side,^[2][3] formed from Middle English bak + side.^[3][2] The OED takes the first part as the combining form back- and the second as the noun side,^[4] while Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford take it as the adjective back.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The reverse or back side of something, such as the back of an astrolabe, a document or the underside of a leaf: about 1392, in the Equatorie of the Planetis.^[4][3] Etymonline dates the general sense "the rear part of anything" to about 1400.^[5] Chaucer has the word twice, also written as two words.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From 1417 the word meant the side of an object furthest from the viewer, or a position at the rear.^[4] From 1450 a backside was also the premises behind a house or farmstead, including the yard, garden and outbuildings, a sense now chiefly regional;^[4][6] the English Dialect Dictionary found backside for the back part of anything in Scotland, Ireland and most English counties, and for a back yard in south Wiltshire,^[8] and Merriam-Webster labels the backyard and farmyard senses as British dialect.^[2] Swift used it in 1704 for a privy, a sense now obsolete.^[4][6] The sense "buttocks" is recorded from 1593 in the OED,^[4] while Etymonline finds the rump of an animal or the buttocks by about 1500.^[5] Green's Dictionary of Slang notes that in this sense it has been standard English in Britain since 1500, with a first quotation from Heywood in 1533, but is still thought improper in the West Indies.^[9] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "the hinder part of any thing".^[10] The figurative sense, the unattractive side of something, appears in Milton in 1645 but was rare from the 18th century until the late 20th.^[4] In the 1960s and 1970s surfers and skateboarders took it up as an adjective and adverb for moves made with one's back to the wave or the direction of travel.^[4] My backside!, an expression of disbelief, is recorded from 1917, chiefly in British and Irish English.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1392 – the reverse or back side of something.^[4][3]
• 1417 – the side furthest from the viewer; a position at the rear.^[4]
• 1450 – the premises behind a house; a backyard (now chiefly regional).^[4]
• 1576 – adjective, situated at the back.^[4]
• 1593 – the buttocks.^[4] Etymonline dates this sense to about 1500.^[5]
• 1645 – figurative, the unattractive side of something.^[4]
• 1704 – a privy (obsolete).^[4]
• 1917 – my backside!, an expression of disbelief.^[4]
• 1964 – in surfing, done with one's back to the wave.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (informal) The buttocks: She slipped on the ice and landed on her backside.^[2][4][6][9]
2. The back or reverse side of something; the rear part.^[4][6][10]
3. (chiefly dialect) A backyard, or the yard and outbuildings behind a house or farm.^[2][4][6][8]
4. my backside! (chiefly British and Irish): an expression of disbelief or contempt.^[4]

Adjective

1. (surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding) Done with one's back to the wave or to the direction of travel.^[4]

Related words

• back
• side

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
8. ^ a b 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)
9. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.