Backed

How to spell backed

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce backed

What does backed mean?

1. verbGave support, approval, or financial help to a person, plan, or cause.
2. verbMoved a vehicle or oneself in a backward direction.

Backed in a sentence

• The bank backed the small business with a generous loan.

• She carefully backed the car out of the narrow garage.

• Every member of the committee backed the new proposal.

• The lorry backed slowly toward the loading dock.

Where does backed come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'back', which grew directly out of the noun 'back', from the Old English bæc meaning the rear surface of the body. In Old English the word described the spine and the hinder part of a person or animal, and over time English speakers turned the noun into a verb meaning to move backwards or to get behind something. By extension, to 'back' a person or plan came to mean to stand behind them and lend support, much as a wall backs a shelf. The spelling stayed close to its Germanic root, keeping the hard -ck before the regular -ed ending, so the trap is simply remembering that no letter doubles and no -t creeps in: it is back plus ed, nothing more. The same root survives in everyday relatives such as 'aback' and 'backbone'.

How the word is built

• back (root, from Old English bæc: the rear)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)