"in back of" and other Americanisms

[Charlie_Jack]

[quote]The variants, at the back of, from about 1400, and in back of, from the early 1900s, also can be used both literally and figuratively. . . .[/quote]–The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Christine Ammer, ed.

Please see also Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage: [quote]Both back of and in back of are standard in American English.[/quote]

The following stage directions are from Eugene O’Neill, The Iceman Cometh:

[quote]In back of this table are three empty chairs.

. . . gets to the chair in back of CAPTAIN LEWIS.

. . . moves away to take a chair in back of the left end of the table. . . .

ROCKY stands in back of them, a hand on each of their shoulders. . . .

. . . disgustedly putting the key on the shelf in back of the bar.
[/quote]

@tsukinodeynatsu

. . . seems like a West Coast thing?

[Eugene O’Neill’s education] began during his eighth year at a Catholic Sisters’ boarding school on the Hudson [i.e., in New York State]. Three Years later he entered a military school in New York City and then, in 1902, transferred to Betts Academy at Stamford, Conn., from which he graduated in 1906. Summers were spent at the family headquarters in New London [Connecticut].

[quote]The Nobel Prize in Literature 1936 was awarded to Eugene O’Neill “for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy”.[/quote] nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lite … ates/1936/

The day before the lighting they dug a big hole in back of the store. . . .

@tsukinodeynatsu

. . . all my US family are from the South-East corner (NC down to Florida)

Though Hurston claimed as an adult that she was born in Eatonville, Florida in 1901, she was actually born in Notasulga, Alabama in 1891, where her father grew up and her grandfather was the preacher of a Baptist church. Her family moved to Eatonville, the first all-Black town to be incorporated in the United States, when she was three. Her father later became mayor of the town, which Hurston would glorify in her stories as a place black Americans could live as they desired, independent of white society. Hurston spent the remainder of her childhood in Eatonville, and describes the experience of growing up in Eatonville in her 1928 essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”.

[tempogain]

Weird, no idea why! disabling safe search only bumped it up to 19,900,000, thought that might be cutting out some things happening in back of my house

[tsukinodeynatsu]

Oh alright Charlie, point taken. ‘in back of’ is a real phrase, all over North America. Doesn’t change that I hadn’t heard it used until I asked, but my circle is generally not from NA!

[Charlie_Jack]

@Tempo Gain

. . . thought that might be cutting out some things happening in back of my house

Maybe the ghost of Nathaniel Hawthorne has visited your 'puter:

[quote]Bewitching to my fancy are all those nooks and crannies where Nature, like a stray partridge, hides her head among the long-established haunts of men! It is likewise to be remarked, as a general rule, that there is far more of the picturesque, more truth to native and characteristic tendencies, and vastly greater suggestiveness in the back view of a residence, whether in town or country, than in its front. The latter is always artificial; it is meant for the world’s eye, and is therefore a veil and a concealment. Realities keep in the rear, and put forward an advance guard of show and humbug.

---

But, to return to my window at the back of the hotel.[/quote]–The Blithedale Romance (1852)

@tsukinodeynatsu

Oh alright Charlie, point taken. ‘in back of’ is a real phrase, all over North America. Doesn’t change that I hadn’t heard it used until I asked, but my circle is generally not from NA!

No problem. A language is so big that it’s easy to miss a drop here and there. I shouldn’t be too surprised if I find I’ve missed bucketfuls.