Timeline for Etymology of the term "back-biting"
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 25, 2021 at 12:09 | comment | added | Greybeard | It is also very practical. The family tree of English goes back to West Germanic -> Germanic and then directly to PIE. I know little of PIE, and its origins are shrouded in complications and half-guessed history. So where do we stop? We will never be able to say "On 2nd March 4209BC, Ug son of Frup spoke these words as he recognised their metaphorical value." But the words "back" (n.) and "bite" (v. and n.) are common enough that we can say that "all social groups had them" and our knowledge of humans means that all social groups have their malicious gossipers. | |
| Jul 25, 2021 at 11:41 | vote | accept | Quintus Caesius - RM | ||
| Jul 25, 2021 at 11:41 | comment | added | Quintus Caesius - RM | @Mitch , I agree. | |
| Jul 24, 2021 at 20:29 | comment | added | Mitch | @Greybeard It seems a bit churlish to stop an etymology at Old English because the community doesn't use 'English' in the label of the community language. It's still relevant to the word in the descendant English. It's even a bit insular (literally and figuratively) to set a bound at the shore. | |
| Jul 24, 2021 at 19:34 | comment | added | Greybeard | @QuintusCaesius-RM That's a good idea. I was going to suggest it, but things here intervened. I should not be surprised to find the concept going back to PIE - where there has been civilisation, there has been backbiting. | |
| Jul 24, 2021 at 19:29 | comment | added | Greybeard | @Mitch I thought I had done that. I don't think that there is any practical use in tracing the word back to the Babylonian Empire because it is not the word we would be tracing but the concept. The English word was coined at some time prior to 1175. The idea of "backbiting" is surely related to "backstabbing" in a lesser form, something that has gone on since Adam was a lad. | |
| Jul 24, 2021 at 18:46 | comment | added | Quintus Caesius - RM | I might ask on Linguistics.SE, I think it will be on-topic there. | |
| Jul 24, 2021 at 18:40 | comment | added | Mitch | @Greybeard ...but it would be very interesting and contribute to an informed answer about the English word. Even if the word was borrowed from language X wholesale, it is still useful here to know what the derivation of the word was in X. | |
| Jul 24, 2021 at 18:39 | comment | added | Greybeard | @QuintusCaesius-RM So do I, but that is not really an English Language & Use question. | |
| Jul 24, 2021 at 18:23 | comment | added | Quintus Caesius - RM | Interesting, I wonder how so many languages connected backbiting to biting on people's backs, or if it was mass borrowed, where it originated from. | |
| Jul 24, 2021 at 16:29 | history | answered | Greybeard | CC BY-SA 4.0 |