Definition
In English property law, a backside is a yard or open ground situated at the rear of a house and appurtenant to it. The term was a standard conveyancing formula used to describe the outdoor space behind a dwelling — equivalent to what would today be called a backyard — along with any outbuildings or structures located there. It carried the legal effect of passing that rear land as part of a conveyance of the principal house.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The back side of anything opposite its front; colloquially, a person's buttocks.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The hinder part, posteriors, or rump of a person or animal."
The legal meaning is entirely distinct from the anatomical sense. In legal instruments, backside has nothing to do with the body; it is a term of property description denoting land. A researcher encountering the word in an old deed or pleading should read it as a conveyancing term of art, not a colloquial expression.
Common Confusion
The anatomical and colloquial senses of backside are so dominant in modern English that contemporary readers routinely misread the term when it appears in historical legal documents. The confusion runs in one direction only: the modern reader imports a non-legal meaning into a legal text. The reverse rarely occurs — no historical conveyancer used backside to mean anything other than rear appurtenant land.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working with English conveyances, deeds, or pleadings from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries will encounter backside as a routine term of property description. Its presence in a deed signals that the conveyance was intended to pass rear land and outbuildings as appurtenances to the main dwelling — an important detail when reconstructing the scope of an early grant or resolving a boundary dispute in a chain of title.
By the late nineteenth century, Bouvier notes that the term had become infrequent except in instruments that repeated ancient descriptions verbatim. This means backside is most likely to appear in one of two contexts: (1) genuinely old documents, or (2) later documents that were drafted by copying or tracking the language of earlier ones. In the second case, the word's presence is a signal that the drafter was working from a prior instrument, and that prior instrument may itself be a critical research target.
In pleading contexts, the term appeared in declarations and indictments involving trespass to land, where precise description of the affected premises was required. Finding it in a pleading source should prompt a check of the underlying property description in any associated conveyance.
The term has no American legal footprint of consequence. It is a feature of English law and English-derived colonial practice. American researchers encountering it in early colonial-era documents should treat it as an Anglicism carried over from English drafting conventions, not as an established American legal term.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries are in close agreement. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier converge on the same core definition: a yard at the back part of or behind a house, belonging thereto. Bouvier adds the most useful practical gloss, observing that the term was "formerly much used both in conveyances and in pleading, but is now of infrequent occurrence except in conveyances which repeat an ancient description." Bouvier cites Chitty's Precedents and 2 Lord Raymond in support, grounding the definition in pleading practice and case authority respectively. Black's (2nd ed.) echoes the archaic character of the term by adding the qualifier "formerly used," confirming that even by the early twentieth century the word was recognized as a relic of earlier drafting.
None of the historical dictionaries address American usage, which is consistent with the term's English character. Researchers should not expect to find parallel American authority.
Jurisdictional Note
Backside as a legal term of art is English in origin and application. It does not appear as a recognized term in American statutes or modern American conveyancing practice. In jurisdictions that inherited English common law, the term may appear in early colonial deeds and will carry its English meaning.