Etymologically
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throwback

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 01:24. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈθɹəʊ.bæk/[1]
  • US: /ˈθɹoʊ.bæk/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English throw + back, as a noun use of the phrasal verb throw back.[2][3][4][5] The OED compares the earlier noun throwing back.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of throwing something backwards, or a backward movement: 1851, in Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford.[2]

Semantic evolution

By 1856 the noun meant a setback or relapse in progress,[2][3] a sense the OED now calls rare.[2] The modern sense came from breeders, who said that an animal threw back when it reverted to an ancestral type, by 1879;[3] the noun for such a reversion, or an animal showing it, is recorded from 1883 by the OED,[2] while Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date it to 1888.[3][4] Dictionaries equate it with atavism.[4][6] From 1923 it was extended to a return to a past style or fashion, and to a person or thing that suggests a former time.[2] From 1968 it was used as an adjective, "old-fashioned" or "imitating a style of the past".[2] It can also mean a flashback in a story or film,[4] and in American slang an old song.[7]

Timeline

  • 1851 – the act of throwing something backwards; a backward movement.[2]
  • 1856 – a setback or relapse in progress.[2][3]
  • 1879 – the breeders' verb throw back, of animals, to revert to an ancestral type.[3]
  • 1883 – noun, a reversion to an ancestral type, or an instance of it.[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date this sense to 1888.[3][4]
  • 1889 – a resetting device in a system of electric bells (obsolete by 1900).[2]
  • 1923 – a return to a past style; a person or thing suggestive of a former time.[2]
  • 1968 – adjective, old-fashioned or imitating a past style.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person, animal or plant that shows the characteristics of an earlier or more primitive type, or the reversion itself; an atavism.[8][4][6][2]
  2. A person or thing suggestive of, or suited to, an earlier time or style: The little station café is a throwback to the 1950s.[9][4][2]
  3. (informal) An occasion when one is reminded of a past time.[8]
  4. A flashback in a story or film.[4]
  5. (rare) A setback or reversal in progress.[2][4]

Adjective

  1. Old-fashioned, or imitating or reviving a style of the past.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 r 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 e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
  8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster