Piggyback?
When you say you piggyback someone, is it that you get on them, or they hop onto your back? I never got it, and it seemed everyone’s definition is different, causing much confusion. Is anyone familiar with the actual definition?
It gets even more confusing when someone owes someone a piggyback…
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Here ya go!!
There are several meanings, and alot of them can be found in this link.
What has confused the usage is the popular process of turning a verb into a noun.
BTW, Nero Wolfe really hated that process.
In this case I think it’s the act of turning a noun into a verb, but the principle is the same.
Even more than that, the culprit is the annoying tendency to turn phrases into single words, as if you were just so busy with more important things that you didn’t have time to utter the rest of the expression. That propensity, probably aided by advertising shorthand, erases the constructions that convey relationships and leaves in their place ambiguity and confusion.
When this activity was described as “riding piggyback” or “giving someone a piggyback ride,” it was not hard to understand. When “piggyback” becomes a transitive verb with a person as the object, I don’t know whether the person is carrying or being carried.
Anybody want a piggyback ride???
Can we do it all at once?
[climbs on top of Jeruba on top of Augustlan on top of loser]
Loser, you okay down there?
Wow, that’s insane skill.
*** As a budding electric guitarist in the 60’s, Piggyback refered to the amplifiers whose speakers were inside a cabinet seperate from the isolated amplifier. The latter usually on top. Two pieces, as most are now days. It was a sign of distinction and prestige.
Not to be confused with Pignose amps!
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