word is bareback...I've heard that this word is more commonly used in the gay male community than in the straight community. Is this true?
-- Modified on 5/12/2004 6:58:03 PM
I believe (could be wrong) that it originated with horseback riding -they ride without a saddle.
Etymology of bare and back. (OE means from old English)
bare - O.E. bær "naked, uncovered," from P.Gmc. *bazaz (cf. Ger. bar, O.N. berr, Du. baar), from PIE *bhosos (cf. Arm. bok "naked;" O.C.S. bosu, Lith. basas "barefoot"). Meaning "sheer, absolute" (1205) is from the notion of "complete in itself." The verb is O.E. barian.
back - O.E. bæc "back, backwards, behind," from P.Gmc. *bakam (cf. O.S., M.Du. bak, O.Fris. bek), which mostly has been ousted in other modern Gmc. languages by words akin to Mod.E. ridge. Verb "to move (something) back" is from 1486; meaning "to support" (as by a bet) is first attested 1548. Backbiting is first recorded c.1175; backslide in the religious sense is from 1581; backwoods is from 1709. Back-date first recorded 1946. Backside "rump" is first recorded 1500. Back door "devious, shady, illegal" is from 1643. The verb back off "retreat" is attested from 1930s. Back down in fig. sense of "withdraw a charge" is first attested 1859, Amer.Eng., from notion of descending a ladder, etc. Back-firing "premature ignition in an internal-combustion engine" is first recorded 1897. Back-stabber in the fig. sense is from 1906. Back-seat driver first attested 1926. Back-track "retrace one's steps" is from 1904. Back-to-nature (adj.) is first attested 1915. Backpack is 1914 as a noun, 1916 as a verb. The back of (one's) hand has been used to imply contempt and rejection since at least 1300; to know something like the back of one's hand, implying familiarity, is first attested 1943. Back bench in the House of Commons sense is from 1874. Back-hand as a tennis stroke dates from 1657. Back-talk "impertinent retort" is first recorded 1858, originally often used in literary attempts at low Irish idiom. To be on the back burner in the figurative sense is from 1960. Back-formation coined by Eng. lexicographer James Murray (1837-1915).
Have a nice day.
that's where the discussion can end. But some of us are into it deeper than that...(ie: the origins of words and phrases... and their evolution into today's language.) Such as your name: blakkromeo2k. A nice mix of the classical, Romeo, Shakespeare, and 2k - a computer generated term dating back to the Roman alphabet. Blakk. Hmmmm. Fascinating. Are you African American? Are you a fan of poet William Blake? Is your real name Blake K. Romeo? Hmmmm. Let's ponder.
get stoned and listen to Sgt. Pepper backwards and pick out the Beatles' faces in the trees on the John Wesley Harding album cover.
I don't mind delving into the origin of words and terms; but in this case, will establishing that gays started the term "bareback" make you better informed? I know what it means; that's all that matters.
Now, the more interesting question of my name makes for better discussion. Romeo was a lily white, hopeless romantic who adored his Juliet. I pictured myself as the dark side of Romeo--a pessimist, a cynic, a narcissist--who happens to love women to a fault...a blakk [black] romeo. The 2k means the year 2000 which is when I first adopted the name.
Thanks for asking.
Question - will establishing that gays started the term "bareback" make you better informed?
Answer - Yes
Then go and impress your buddies with the tidbit that "bareback" is a term of gay origin...you'll be DA MAN!!!
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. Take care of y'self.
Granted, I went crazy with my extended etymology post on bareback but I love that shit and felt threatened when you sounded like it couldn't matter in the least...but here you are being all creative with language which gives me a boner. Well, not THAT kind of boner but you know what I mean. Sorry if I pissed you off and thanks for sharing your handle etymology.
Jockeypants.
Are you looking for the origin of the term as it applies to sex without a condom? Or whether it is used more commonly in the gay male community? These are two separate questions. "Bareback" had been used before that, of course. You had to have been aware of that, in horseback riding, where riding without a saddle is the unusual and risky thing to do.
I guess it became imported into the sexual lexicon about when sex without a condom would have become unusual, notable, and risky-- at the time AIDS became a threat. In which case, yes, it would have been the gay community which started to use the term, as they were threatened by AIDS first and most directly.
/Zin