Backpack

How to spell backpack

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce backpack

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does backpack mean?

1. nounA bag with shoulder straps worn on the back for carrying belongings.
2. verbTo travel or hike while carrying one's belongings in a bag on the back.

Backpack in a sentence

• noun

  She stuffed her laptop and lunch into the backpack before catching the train.

• verb

  They plan to backpack across Europe for three months after graduation.

• noun

  Every hiker on the trail wore a heavy backpack loaded with supplies.

• verb

  Many students choose to backpack through Southeast Asia on a tight budget.

Where does backpack come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Backpack is a transparent compound of the two ordinary English words 'back' and 'pack'. The first element, 'back', descends from the Old English 'baec', meaning the rear part of the body, while 'pack' arrived in late Middle English from a Low German or Dutch source (compare Middle Dutch 'pac', a bundle of goods bound together for carrying). The word itself is surprisingly modern: it was coined in American English in the early twentieth century, around 1910, to name a bag worn on the shoulders against the back. It largely replaced the older 'knapsack', borrowed from German 'Knappsack', where 'knappen' meant to bite or snap and described a sack of food for a journey. Because both halves of backpack are plain everyday words spelled exactly as they sound, the compound carries no real spelling trap.

How the word is built

• back (the rear of the body)
• pack (a bundle of things carried)