Back Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'hand' last time and this time it's 'back'.

Turning one’s back on someone (or something) appears in the early 14th century.

Nobody knew anything like the back of their hand is first recorded in the book Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson, pubnlished in 1893. In the late 19th century ‘the back of my hand to you’ is used in the context of ‘I will have nothing to do with you’.

Backdoors didn’t exist before the 1640s.

Back seat – you know that place where passengers sit when you’re driving – appears for the first time in 1923, but refers to those seated to the rear of a coach, while the term back-seat driver is first seen in print as early as 1923.

Back-formation, a term I use quite often when speaking on the origins of place names, refers to any word formed from an existing word and has been found since at least 1887.

Back beat is officially defined as ‘a strong beat regularly falling on a normally unaccented beat of a bar’ when it was first used in 1928 to describe jazz. Or, as John Lennon tweaked the words to Chuck Berry’s Rock and Roll Music ‘It’s got a back beat you can’t blues it.”

Back slang has rather fallen out of use in the modern era, but when first seen in 1860 it described words prounced backwards (or nearly so).

A ladder-back is a chair design seen from 1898.

Pullback is first seen in the mid-17th century when it described the action of pulling someone back, but from 1951 it was used to refer to an orderly military retreat.

Nobody offered their support by saying they would back them up before 1767, but the sense of back up used to describe such as a blockage in a pipe (or latterly traffic) is not seen until 1834.

Back down, as in withdraw a challenge or statement, is first seen in 1859.

Nobody suffered from back ache until the beginning of the 17th century.

Back-breaking is not used until 1849.

And nobody described a leatherback turtle as such until 1855.

Saudi Arabia Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at the largest Saudi Arabian cities.

Abha is probably the same as the Sanskrit abha and means 'splendour, light'.

Tabuk is mentioned in the Quran and dated at 3500BC as being known as Ashab al-Aykah or 'the companions of the wood'.

Ta'if has a name describing its early use, for this former fortified town's name means 'with a wall around'.

Najran was traditionally named after the first man to settle here, one Najran ibn Zaydan ibn Saba ibn Yahjub ibn Yarub ibn Qahtan. The Arabic word najran does have a couple of other meanings, 'thirsty' could well be the origin of a place name, while the idea of this referring to 'the wooden frame on an opening door' sounds rather forced, at best.

Ar Rass comes from the Arabic and means '(place) at the old well'.

Riyadh simply means 'gardens', a reference to the earlier oasis towns which were effectively the origin of the city.

Uyun AlJiwa is another from a water reference, referring to the water ponds which once surrounded the area and translating as 'the valley's ponds'.

Qatif translates to either 'harvest' or 'grain' depending on the context.

Ras Tanura is Arabic for 'cape oven' or 'cape brazier', thought to be a reference to the heat generated by the topography.

Jeddah has two possible origins. Somethimes explained as the Arabic word for 'grandmother', traditionally this is where Eve's tomb is to be found. Alternatively this is named after Jeddah ibn Al-Qudaa'iy, the clan chief.

Dammam has two explanations: either from the Arabic dawwama 'whirlpool' and a warning to shipping that such had to be avoided, or it is onomatopoeic and sounds like the drums sounded to alert the villagers that the fishing fleet were returning.

Medina comes from the Arabic al-Madinah meaning simply 'the city'.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.