aback
aback Lexical Profile
aback Game Scores & Validity
• adverb
Into a state of sudden surprise, shock, or momentary confusion (used almost exclusively in the phrase 'taken aback').
"She was completely taken aback by the committee's unexpected question during the interview."
In a nautical context, backward against the mast, with the wind blowing directly onto the front surface of the sails so as to check forward motion.
"A sudden shift in the gale caught the schooner's topsails flat aback."
Word Nuance & Usage
In modern general English, 'aback' is almost exclusively restricted to the passive phrasal expression 'taken aback' (meaning surprised or disconcerted); its literal directional sense survives only as a technical nautical term.
• Rhymes for aback
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English 'on bæc', meaning 'on or toward the back'. The modern figurative idiom 'taken aback' originated as a 19th-century nautical metaphor referring to a ship suddenly halted when a shift in wind presses its sails flat against the masts.