Meanings
plural backfische · plural backfisches
- A teenage or late-adolescent girl.
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 19401 more example
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 September 15, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, Paris: The Olympia Press […], →OCLC, page 115
Origin
- GermanBackfisch“teenage girl”
- Englishbackfisch
Borrowed from German Backfisch (“teenage girl”, literally “fish for baking”).
More words from German
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch bakvis
- bakvisteenage girl
German Backfisch
- Backfischteenage girl
Hungarian bakfis
- bakfisteenage girl
Russian девочка-подросток
- девочка-подросток (devočka-podrostok)teenage girl
Swedish backfisch
- backfischteenage girl
Cite this entry
backfisch. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/backfisch
“backfisch.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/backfisch. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “backfisch,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/backfisch.
Source: backfisch on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.