outback

Pronunciation

• US: /ˈaʊtbæk/^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English out + back, both as adverbs.^[2][3][4][5] Etymonline calls it Australian English, originally an adverb meaning out in the back settlements.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Outside at the back of a house or other building, in or into the back yard: 1852, in a North American source.^[2] The Australian and New Zealand sense, in or into a remote inland district, follows in the OED from 1859.^[2] Etymonline dates the adverb to 1878,^[3] and Dictionary.com the word to 1875–80.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The adverb was used in Australia and New Zealand for going or living far inland, in the back country.^[2][3][7] The Sydney Bulletin has the adjective from 1893, of things belonging to such remote districts,^[2][8] and the noun the outback, the remote and sparsely settled interior of Australia, from 1904;^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1893,^[5][9] and Etymonline to 1907, written Out Back.^[3] Australian and New Zealand dictionaries note that it is sometimes written with a capital, and that it applies less often to New Zealand.^[10][11] In Australian literature the interior was romanticised as the Great Outback or the great Australian outback.^[7][10] From 1954, in R. Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth, the word was also used of the remote inland regions of any country, usually with the Australian interior in mind.^[2][12] In North America out back kept its first sense, behind the house.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1852 – adverb, out at the back of a house (North American).^[2]
• 1859 – adverb, in or into a remote inland district.^[2] Etymonline dates the adverb, out in the back settlements, to 1878.^[3]
• 1893 – adjective, of or typical of the remote back country.^[2][8]
• 1904 – noun, the outback, the remote inland regions of Australia.^[2] Etymonline dates the noun to 1907.^[3]
• 1954 – the remote inland region of any country; also figurative.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. the outback (sometimes capitalized): the remote, thinly populated inland regions of Australia, and less often of New Zealand: They spent a year driving around the outback.^{[7][11][10][2]}
2. Any remote or sparsely populated inland region; the backcountry.^[12][2]
3. the Great Outback: the Australian outback as romanticized in literature.^[7][10]

Adjective

1. Of, in or typical of the outback: an outback mining town.^[7][10][2]

Adverb

1. In or to the outback: Her family went to live outback.^[7][10][5]
2. (chiefly North American, usually written out back) Outside at the back of a house, in the back yard.^[2][4]

Word family

• outbacker

Related words

• out
• back
• backcountry

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 p q 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 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 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 e f Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e f The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers
11. ^ a b Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Auckland: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press