Bakbitynge

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Spreading spiteful remarks about a person behind their back when they are not present to defend themselves
2. The unkind act of criticizing an absent person in a hurtful way, often to damage their reputation
3. Malicious gossip or slander directed at someone who is not there to answer the accusations

Etymology: "Bakbitynge" is a Middle English word, the gerund or verbal noun of "bakbiten," meaning to speak ill of someone who is absent. It is a compound of "back," in the sense of behind someone's back, and "biten," to bite, so the image is of attacking a person from behind where they cannot answer. The same metaphor survives in the modern "backbite," which the Oxford English Dictionary records as the later form. The word appears in the Old English-derived vocabulary of the medieval period, and its spelling in the form given here is typical of late Middle English texts, where the "y" and final "-e" are common in manuscripts. The verb itself was formed on the native English pattern of combining a noun with a verb, not borrowed from another language, which is why the word looks so plainly English compared with many words in the period.