- Home
- Idioms
- behind someone's back
behind someone's back
behind someone's back
Out of one's presence or without someone's knowledge, as in Joan has a nasty way of maligning her friends behind their backs. Sir Thomas Malory used this metaphoric term in Le Morte d'Arthur (c. 1470): "To say of me wrong or shame behind my back." [Early 1300s]
Common Names:
| Name | Gender | Pronounced | Usage |
|---|
| Charity | | CHER-i-tee, CHAR-i-tee | English |
| Severin | | ZE-ve-reen (German) | German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish |
| Ascot | | ['æskət] | |
| Averill | | - | English (Rare) |
| ValÉRie | | va-le-REE (French) | French, Czech |
| Kade | | KAYD | English (Modern) |