Meaning of “Pushed Back”

Hello, you have a way with the words.

Hi, this is Tony Jafre, calling from Blacksburg, Virginia.

Hi, Tony. Welcome to the program.

Hi.

Thanks. Well, it’s always bothered me when others refer to an appointment or a meeting as getting pushed back.

And I understand that they’re intending to say that the appointment will be delayed or postponed.

But to me, the phrase pushed back has the connotation of being pushed backward in time rather than forward in time.

And so its meaning is basically opposite of what my tuition says it would be.

Can you give us an example of that?

Well, for example, someone would say, okay, the meeting tomorrow instead of at 2 p.m., the meeting tomorrow will be pushed back to 3 p.m.

And so it’s understood that that phrase means it will be pushed back to a later time.

But, for example, I just, I don’t know, to me, time always is moving forward.

So why should a meeting that’s being pushed backwards occur later, or being pushed back occur later rather than sooner?

So the confusion would appear if they didn’t specifically name the time.

If they say the meeting’s being pushed back one hour, you would go, well, wait a second.

Do you mean three or do you mean one?

That’s what you’re saying, right?

Well, when I’ve questioned people then, when that sort of confusion first arised, you know, I always looked to be the idiot because everyone else seems to understand the phrases as being postponed or delayed.

You and my magazine editor, for whom I worked years ago, were on the same page.

And I got into trouble because of this, because she wanted to push back my deadline.

And I thought that she meant I had another week to write the story.

She wanted to push it back a week.

And so I thought, well, I have another week.

And then the day before I was supposed to turn it in, which was a week before I thought I was supposed to turn it in, she said, you’re going to have the story, right?

And I said, no, you pushed back the deadline.

So, yes, very important implications.

So it has to do with how you’re picturing it and how you’re picturing time moving.

I saw you putting your hands out in a timeline while he was talking, right?

Yeah, I guess so.

Yeah, exactly.

And so to me, since time is always moving forward, why should we use back as part of that phrase?

And I don’t know.

Yeah, it’s definitely one of the less clear pushback.

It works together.

It is pretty standard that it means to delay or to postpone,

But I could see how in a quick analysis you might make the wrong decision about what it means.

I guess I’d prefer that people use the word reschedule then.

Reschedule.

If the clarification is going to be there anyway, then everyone should just say reschedule.

Better. That’s clearer speech, which we usually prefer here.

Yes, much better. I like that.

I should note, though, for the record, that push back and push forward have been pretty standardly used in the way that’s contrary to your intuition in English for 150 years.

Okay.

Wow.

That’s a lot longer than I thought it would be.

But that doesn’t mean that push has got 1,000 meanings.

Back has got 10,000 meanings.

That doesn’t mean that it’s, even though it’s been used that long, it doesn’t mean that it’s clear for everyone.

Yeah.

Reschedule is a great choice.

Good suggestion.

And seeking clarification when in doubt is even better.

Sitting there silently isn’t going to solve it.

Sure.

Thank you so much, Tony, for the interesting question.

Well, thank you for clearing things up and reassuring me that I’m not crazy.

You’re not crazy and you’re not alone.

Thanks.

Great. Well, thank you so much.

Take care. Bye-bye.

Take care.

Yep. Bye.

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