Setback

How to spell setback

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce setback

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does setback mean?

1. nounA reversal or check in progress that delays or hinders something.
2. nounThe required distance a building must be placed back from a road, boundary, or other structure.

Setback in a sentence

• The funding cut was a serious setback for the research team.

• Local zoning rules require a ten metre setback from the property line.

• Despite an early setback, the company recovered its losses by spring.

• The architect adjusted the design to meet the front setback for the street.

Where does setback come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a homegrown English compound, built from two of the language's oldest building blocks. The verb 'set' descends from Old English 'settan', meaning 'to cause to sit' or 'to place firmly', while 'back' comes from Old English 'baec', referring to the rear of the body and then, by extension, to any rearward direction. The two were joined in the modern sense during the nineteenth century to describe a reversal that pushes one's progress backwards. An earlier and more literal use appears in architecture and town planning, where a 'setback' is the required distance a building is set back from a road or boundary line. Because both halves are common, familiar words, the spelling is straightforward: there is no hidden letter, just 'set' followed directly by 'back', written as a single solid word rather than two words or a hyphenated pair.

How the word is built

• set (to place, fix)
• back (rearward); a transparent compound meaning a movement back from progress