back

Meanings

1. 1
   adv

   To or toward the place, position, or time something came from.

   They went back to their parents' house.

2. 2
   adv

   In the direction behind you.

   They moved back to get away from the cameras.

3. 3
   adv

   In reply or in return.

   They wrote back three days later.

4. 4
   noun

   The part of something that supports your back when you sit.

   The back of the chair was adjustable.

5. 5
   verb

   to move backward or cause something to move backward

   The driver began to back the van into the garage.

Multiword verbs with back

• back off Phrasal verb A1

  to move backward or away from a position

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Back is inherited from Old English. The word later became highly productive in English compounds and expressions, including backwoods, back-seat driver, and phrases such as get someone’s back up and back to square one.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der.? Proto-Germanic *baką Proto-West Germanic *bak Old English bæc Middle English bak English back From Middle English bak, from Old English bæc, from Proto-West Germanic *bak, from Proto-Germanic *baką, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to bend”). The adverb represents an aphetic form of aback. Compare Middle Low German bak (“back”), from Old Saxon bak, and West Frisian bekling (“chair back”), Old High German bah, Swedish and Norwegian bak. Cognate with German Bache (“sow [adult female hog]”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary