back-slappingadj.n.
Slapping the back.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > social intercourse or companionship > [adjective] > affable > hearty > back-slapping
back-slapping1777
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > social intercourse or companionship > [noun] > quality of being agreeable or affable > agreeable person > vigorously hearty person > act of slapping the back
back-slapping1960
1777 Twining in Country Clergym. 18th C. (1882) 50 A brisk, noisy, back-slapping new man.
1884 E. Yates Recoll. & Experiences I. v. 186 A..good-natured vulgarian, of a dreadful back-slapping, Christian-name calling familiarity.
1920 S. Lewis Main St. xxviii. §6 Isn't the thing he lacks the back-slapping jocosity that passes for humor here?
1946 Scrutiny XIV. 155 The blustering, hearty, back-slapping manner..is the reverse of the discreet, self-effacing and seemly behaviour which one has a right to expect of a good undertaker.
1960 J. Fingleton Four Chukkas to Austral. vii. 77 There were, to be true, wild jumps of elation and much back-slapping.
Derivatives
back-slap v. [as a back-formation.]
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > social intercourse or companionship > be sociable [verb (intransitive)] > act in agreeable spirit > indulge in back-slapping
back-slap1935
1935 S. Lewis It can't happen Here ix. 90 He grinned and knee-patted and back-slapped.
back-slapper n. a vigorously hearty person.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > social intercourse or companionship > [noun] > quality of being agreeable or affable > agreeable person > vigorously hearty person
hearty1915
back-slapper1924
1924 Chicago Tribune 1 Oct. 23/1 (heading) Here's a Comic Piece About a Back-Slapper.
1929 Evening News 4 Jan. 9/4 The back-slappers, the rib-diggers, the over hearty and the dwellers-in-the-limelight are to be avoided.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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adj.n.1777