Backseat

How to spell backseat

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce backseat

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does backseat mean?

1. nounThe seat or row of seats behind the driver in a car or other vehicle.
2. nounA less important or less influential position, used in the phrase to take a backseat.

Backseat in a sentence

• The children climbed into the backseat and fastened their belts.

• After the merger her department took a backseat to the new sales team.

• He left his briefcase on the backseat of the taxi.

• Family commitments meant his hobbies had to take a backseat for a while.

Where does backseat come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent compound formed from two very old words. The first element, 'back', comes from the Old English bæc, meaning the rear of the body or of any object, a sense that has stayed remarkably stable for over a thousand years. The second element, 'seat', was borrowed from the Old Norse sæti, meaning a place to sit, and it is related to the verb 'to sit' that English speakers inherited from the same Germanic family. The combined form arose with the growth of carriages and later motor cars, naming the row of seating behind the driver. The figurative phrase 'to take a backseat', meaning to accept a less important role, grew naturally out of the idea that the rear passenger does not control the vehicle. Because both parts are common everyday words joined without any change, the spelling holds no hidden trap beyond remembering it as one solid word.

How the word is built

• back (rear, from Old English bæc)
• seat (a place to sit, from Old Norse sæti)