the.com/back
The body's load-bearing genius, quietly heroic until the day it isn't.
means The rear surface of the human body running from the shoulders to the hips, or by extension the rear or reverse side of anything.
from From Old English 'bæc,' a word for the same body part, with cousins across the old Germanic languages — Old Norse 'bak,' Old Saxon and Old High German 'bah.' From the literal spine, English stretched 'back' outward to mean the rear of nearly everything (the back of a house, the back of a chair) and then inward to mean direction and return ('come back,' 'pay back'), so that one short word now carries both a body part and a whole sense of going the way you came.
- spine count
- 33 vertebrae stacked into a flexible tower
- global ache
- Back pain is a leading cause of disability worldwide
- shoulder blade
- The scapula floats, held mostly by muscle
- hidden nerves
- Houses the spinal cord, your body's data cable
- upright cost
- Walking on two legs strained backs forever
back of the net — soccer/football goal celebration phrase popularized by commentators worldwide
lower back pain — most common workplace injury affecting 80% of adults at some point
back nine — golf's second set of 9 holes at any 18-hole course
quarterback position — american football's most critical position, worth $50+ million contracts