"back forty" meaning in All languages combined

See back forty on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Audio: en-au-back forty.ogg [Australia], Audio (US) - "Back Forty".ogg [US] Forms: back forties [plural]
Etymology: back + forty, meaning “back side of a farm”. In the Homestead Acts (1860s–), farmers were granted a quarter section; a section was nominally 1 square mile containing 640 acres, a quarter section was 160 acres, and the quarter section was itself subdivided into four quarter-quarter sections of 40 acres each: two front forty and two back forty. Compare north forty, back of beyond, backcountry, and backwater. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|back|forty}} back + forty Head templates: {{en-noun}} back forty (plural back forties)
  1. (US) The remote part of a farm. Tags: US
    Sense id: en-back_forty-en-noun-bmMBfdrg Categories (other): American English
  2. (US, idiomatic) The most remote or inaccessible part of any place. Tags: US, idiomatic Categories (topical): Forty
    Sense id: en-back_forty-en-noun-C46mHafE Disambiguation of Forty: 38 62 Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 42 58
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms (remote place): See: Thesaurus:remote place
Disambiguation of 'remote place': 49 51

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for back forty meaning in All languages combined (2.6kB)

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  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "back",
        "3": "forty"
      },
      "expansion": "back + forty",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "back + forty, meaning “back side of a farm”. In the Homestead Acts (1860s–), farmers were granted a quarter section; a section was nominally 1 square mile containing 640 acres, a quarter section was 160 acres, and the quarter section was itself subdivided into four quarter-quarter sections of 40 acres each: two front forty and two back forty. Compare north forty, back of beyond, backcountry, and backwater.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "back forties",
      "tags": [
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
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  "pos": "noun",
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    {
      "categories": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They couldn't contact the farmer right away because he was out plowing the back forty"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The remote part of a farm."
      ],
      "id": "en-back_forty-en-noun-bmMBfdrg",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) The remote part of a farm."
      ],
      "tags": [
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      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
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          "_dis": "42 58",
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          "parents": [
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
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            "Terms by semantic function",
            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
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        "The most remote or inaccessible part of any place."
      ],
      "id": "en-back_forty-en-noun-C46mHafE",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic) The most remote or inaccessible part of any place."
      ],
      "tags": [
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/En-au-back_forty.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "Audio (US) - \"Back Forty\".ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1e/Audio_%28US%29_-_%22Back_Forty%22.ogg/Audio_%28US%29_-_%22Back_Forty%22.ogg.mp3",
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      "sense": "remote place",
      "word": "See: Thesaurus:remote place"
    }
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      "expansion": "back + forty",
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    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "back + forty, meaning “back side of a farm”. In the Homestead Acts (1860s–), farmers were granted a quarter section; a section was nominally 1 square mile containing 640 acres, a quarter section was 160 acres, and the quarter section was itself subdivided into four quarter-quarter sections of 40 acres each: two front forty and two back forty. Compare north forty, back of beyond, backcountry, and backwater.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "back forties",
      "tags": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They couldn't contact the farmer right away because he was out plowing the back forty"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The remote part of a farm."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) The remote part of a farm."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The most remote or inaccessible part of any place."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic) The most remote or inaccessible part of any place."
      ],
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        "US",
        "idiomatic"
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/En-au-back_forty.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
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      "audio": "Audio (US) - \"Back Forty\".ogg",
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      "sense": "remote place",
      "word": "See: Thesaurus:remote place"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Homestead Acts"
  ],
  "word": "back forty"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-31 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (91e95e7 and db5a844). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.