'backbearing' originates from English, specifically the compound of 'back' and 'bearing', where 'back' meant 'rear' or 'behind' and 'bearing' (from 'bear') meant 'direction' (originally 'to carry' or 'to bear').

'back' comes from Old English 'bæc'; 'bearing' developed from Old English 'beran' (to bear/carry) through Middle English 'beren', with 'bearing' taking on the sense of 'direction' or 'manner of bearing' in later English; the compound 'back-bearing' (often written as two words or hyphenated) later yielded the single-word form 'backbearing' in technical usage.

Initially, 'bearing' primarily referred to carrying or manner of carrying; over time it acquired the specialized sense of 'direction' or 'azimuth', so the compound came to mean the 'direction back toward' an object (the reciprocal direction).