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Taka Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

back to back

Back to back homerun.

What does the first 'back' mean? And what does the second one mean?
  

Top answer

Interesting, Taka. It's mid-19th century, so possibly expanded from the poker-playing meaning: two cards of the same denomination dealt consecutively , the first face down and the second face up (this is the way of dealing both blackjack and the beginning of 5-card stud). Hence the cards appear to be back-to-back .

— Mister Micawber

  • Interesting, Taka.
  • It's mid-19th century, so possibly expanded from the poker-playing meaning: two cards of the same denomination dealt consecutively , the first face down and the second face up (this is the way of dealing both blackjack and the beginning of 5-card stud).
  • Hence the cards appear to be back-to-back .
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14 Answers
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Interesting, Taka. It's mid-19th century, so possibly expanded from the poker-playing meaning: two cards of the same denomination dealt consecutively, the first face down and the second face up (this is the way of dealing both blackjack and the beginning of 5-card stud). Hence the cards appear to be back-to-back.
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From card games. Interesting.

But I've heard 'back to back to back homeruns' for three homeruns in a row...How do you explain this?
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... and four in a row would be back-to-back-to-back-to-back homeruns, Taka. Surely that makes sense!
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I can visualize the situation where two cards are back-to-back. It's something like:

(the back of the first card)<--to<--(the back of the second card).

But if I follow your instruction of the game, the third card won't be another back-to-back because it's going to be:

(the face of the second card)<--to<--(the back of the third card)

o
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And homeruns don't have any backs or faces. C'mon, Taka-- stop trying to use logic! The phrase has been transferred from a concrete meaning in poker to a metaphoric or idiomatic expression in baseball.
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And homeruns don't have any backs or faces.

Then how do you expand the expression 'back-to-back' to describe the third card on the second one when you actually play the game?

C'mon, Taka-- stop trying to use logic!

I mysef don't actually think that everything can be explained by logic, really. But I do believe ther
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(Forgot to sign in again-- MM)


The third back is added because there are already two backs, and the fourth back is added because there are already three backs. Back has no more significance as a descriptive part of an object when the phrase has migrated to the baseball stadium, so they are merely cumul
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Hi,

There's also 'back to back' in the sense of two men fighting a circle of enemies, each protecting the other's back. The idea is that you have complete trust in each other, against the world.

Rudyard Kipling has a line: Why, back to back they met an attack that neither could face alone!

An expression that seems to have come into use in fa
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I've got your back


It seems to complement 'watch my back'.

(Which defeats its own object, if taken literally.)

MrP
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Whatever happened to the 'Zombie Jamboree?--

Back to back, belly to belly, well I don't give a **** 'cause it don't matter really

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