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Back

Pronunciation: /bak/

“Back” is a German word. Its 4 meanings in English:

noun

  1. forecastle (raised part of the upper deck)
  2. a large wooden bowl in which the meal is served
  3. a dining table used by the crew of a ship, often foldable
  4. defender; back

Etymology

From Middle Low German bak (“bowl, box, chest”), from Middle Dutch bak (modern Dutch bak), from Old French bac (“large bowl”). Related with Becken, but unrelated with Backbord. The sense “dining table” is due to the fact that several sailors would eat from one bowl, so the word Back came to be used for the entire area that they shared. The sense “forecastle” might be a further generalisation…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.