Backscratching

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The exchange of favors between parties, often involving a mutual benefit where assistance is provided with the hope of receiving help later
2. The practice where individuals or groups provide help to each other with the expectation of reciprocal support
3. A cooperative arrangement involving giving and receiving benefits to assist one another in achieving goals

Etymology: Backscratching is a plain compound of "back" and "scratching," the gerund of "scratch," and its literal sense is exactly what it sounds like: scratching someone's back, which is most useful when the itch is out of reach. The figurative sense of two people helping each other out, so that each scratches the other's back, is the one that has grown familiar in English. The verb form, meaning to do such favours, follows naturally from the noun. The earliest English uses of "back-scratching" in the literal sense date from the 1500s, and the figurative sense had appeared by the nineteenth century, though the exact first record for the metaphor is less certain. The word's history is therefore less a story of invention than of a physical act becoming a social image that writers reached for when describing mutual favours among politicians, colleagues and friends.

Synonyms: favor trading, reciprocity, mutualism, collaboration, support

Antonyms: betrayal, neglect, abandonment