piggyback

[Unregistered]

Please look at the two pictures.
Are they both called piggyback?
someone's legs on someone else's shoulders vs someone's legs not one his shoulders?
Do they have different names for these two rides? Please tell me the names


http://www.examiner.com/assets/art/Piggy-back.jpg
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/danma.../piggyback.jpg

[fromatto]

Please look at the two pictures.
Are they both called piggyback?
someone's legs on someone else's shoulders vs someone's legs not one his shoulders?
Do they have different names for these two rides? Please tell me the names


http://www.examiner.com/assets/art/Piggy-back.jpg
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/danma.../piggyback.jpg

No.2 is definitely a 'piggyback race'. No.1 looks like two directors larking around.

[Anglika]

"Piggyback" is usually riding on someone's back with your legs around his torso and held under his arms.

[Kraken]

I can tell the difference because we have different names for them in Spanish. #1 is "a hombros" (over one's shoulders) and #2 is "a caballito" (little horse style).
In English, it looks like there is just one name for both of them.

From define.com

piggyback

adverb

2: on the back or shoulder or astraddle on the hip; "she carried her child piggyback" [syn: {pickaback}, {pig-a-back}]


But I'm not a teacher

[vil]

piggyback (adj.) on the shoulders or back: ride piggyback; a piggyback ride.
(n) the act of transporting piggyback.
(v) carry on the back or shoulders
(adv.) on the back or shoulder or astraddle on the hip
Synonyms: pickaback, pig-a-back

Regards.

V.

[Barb_D]

I never have considered being on someone's shoulders as being "piggy back."

That's being on someone's shoulders.

[David L.]

the man is 'sitting on his shoulders'

[vil]

piggyback: Definition and Much More from Answers.com

[Shakespeare's brother]

And does this aid the discussion?:

1838, probably a folk-etymology alteration of pick pack (1565), which perhaps is from pick, a dial. variant of pitch (v.).

[BobK]

I never have considered being on someone's shoulders as being "piggy back."

That's being on someone's shoulders.

Same here. The 'on someone's shoulders' version of piggy-back is presumably a back-formation from a metaphorical use of piggy-back as a verb - in the field of communications protocols, one message is often transmitted together with another, to reduce networking overheads; so software engineers often use this verb. Software engineers are often second-language speakers of English (increasingly so, as more and more engineering development is sent off-shore to places like Bangalore [as indeed mine was]). I should imagine that this would explain the increasing acceptance of 'piggy-back' in the more general sense of 'on the back' - especially in on-line sources.

b