Backbone

How to spell backbone

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce backbone

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does backbone mean?

1. nounThe column of vertebrae running down the back of a human or animal; the spine.
2. nounStrength of character; the courage and resolve to stand firm under pressure.
3. nounThe central or most important supporting part of a structure, system, or organisation.

Backbone in a sentence

• The fall left her with a fractured backbone and weeks of recovery.

• It took real backbone to report the fraud to the board.

• Small farms still form the backbone of the rural economy.

• The surgeon explained how each disc cushions the backbone.

• The committee lacked the backbone to make an unpopular decision.

• Fibre cables make up the backbone of the company's network.

Where does backbone come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Backbone is a native English compound, joining two words of Germanic stock. 'Back' descends from Old English 'baec', meaning the rear surface of the body, while 'bone' comes from Old English 'ban', the hard tissue of the skeleton. The two were welded together in the late 1300s to name the spine, the column of vertebrae running down the back. Because the spine literally holds the body upright, the word soon took on a figurative life, standing for firmness of character and the courage to stand one's ground; this sense is recorded from the 1600s. The same image gives us the modern technical use, where the backbone is the main central trunk of a system, such as the high-capacity links that carry a computer network.

How the word is built

• back (the rear of the body)
• bone (skeletal element); a transparent compound