Backe

Backe

1. A surname.
2. A hamlet in St Clears community, Carmarthenshire, Wales (OS grid ref SN2515).
3. A community in Jämtland, Sweden.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbakə/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Ba‧cke; before 1996: Bak‧ke

From Middle High German backe, from Old High German backo. Further origin uncertain; note, however, the similarity to Ancient Greek φᾰγεῖν (phăgeîn, “eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂g- (“to divide, distribute”) (though the same non-trivial semantic shift occurring in two independent branches is unlikely),^[1] as well as Latin bucca.

Backe f (genitive Backe, plural Backen, diminutive Bäckchen n)

1. cheek (on the face)

   Synonym: Wange

2. jaw (of a tool)

• In most regions, Backe is the normal word for “cheek” while Wange is formal or literary.

• die Backen vollnehmen (“to talk big”)
• Backpfeife (“slap on the cheek”)

From Early New High German backe, possibly related to Etymology 1. Compare typologically Russian я́годица (jágodica, “buttock”), Serbo-Croatian jагодица (“cheekbone”) (< Proto-Slavic *agodica (“cheek”)). However, perhaps more likely related to Proto-West Germanic *bak (“back (of the body)”), Bache, and Bank, and converged onto the same spelling and pronunciation as that of Etymology 1.^[2]

Backe f (genitive Backe, plural Backen, diminutive Bäckchen n)

1. buttock, butt cheek

• Dumpfbacke
• Fettbacke
• Schweinebacke
• Schweinsbacke

• “Backe” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Backe (Schinken, Speckseite)” in Duden online
• “Backe (Wange, Seitenteil)” in Duden online
• Friedrich Kluge (1883), “Backe”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891