back
n. countablen. the part of your body between your neck and your legs, on the side opposite your chest and stomach. It can also mean the rear part of an object, like a chair or a book.
n. the posterior surface of the human body from the neck to the pelvis. By extension, it refers to the rear part of any object, opposite its front or main side.
My back hurts from sitting all day.
He carried the heavy grocery bags on his back all the way home from the store.
The old book's leather back was cracked and faded, showing the countless times it had been pulled from the shelf over the centuries.
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]”).
Borrowed from French bac.
They talked about me in my back.They talked about me behind my back.The common idiom for speaking about someone secretly is 'behind their back', not 'in their back'.