'backhoe' is a compound from English, formed from 'back' + 'hoe', where 'back' meant 'rear' and 'hoe' meant the digging implement.

'backhoe' arose in 20th-century American English as a name for a rear-mounted digging implement on tractors and later the machine itself; it was often written as 'back-hoe' before becoming the single word 'backhoe'.

Initially it referred specifically to the hoe-like digging attachment mounted at the back of a vehicle; over time it came to refer to the whole machine (the rear-mounted excavator) and the action of digging with it.