Dictionary

backfisch en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈbækfɪʃ/

Etymology

Borrowed from German Backfisch (“teenage girl”, literally “fish for baking”).

Meanings

1. A teenage or late-adolescent girl.
   • I knew, of course, it was but an innocent game on her part, a bit of backfisch foolery in imitation of some simulacrum of fake romance, […] 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC, part 1, page 115:
   • When we were charming Backfisch / With curls and velvet bows / We shared a charming kitten / With tiny velvet toes. 1919, Katherine Mansfield, “Friendship”, in J. Middleton Murry, editor, The Scrapbook of Katherine Mansfield, published 1940:

Forms

Translations (5)

sv backfisch (teenage girl) · nl bakvis (teenage girl) · hu bakfis (teenage girl) · ru девочка-подросток (teenage girl) · de Backfisch (teenage girl)