Ursprunget till betydelsen ’rumpa’ hos svenskans bak

Abstract

In Old Swedish, the noun bak(er) had the meaning ’back (of a human being or an animal)’, in present-day Swedish, the noun bak means ’bum’. In the 18th and 19th centuries, both meanings occurred in standard language. It is argued that the meaning did not
shift directly from one body part to another; rather, the meaning ’bum’ derives mainly from the adverb bak ‘at the back’ which has from Old Swedish times often referred euphemistically to the bum. The process can thus be seen as an instance of degrammaticalization. However, influence was certainly also exerted by French le derrière, as well as German der Hintere, both of which show the same euphemism as bak. Moreover, bak was possibly regarded as a truncation of the noun bakände ’bum; lit. end of back’.