backe

Backe is a word found in Old English translations of the Hebrew word tanshemeth in Leviticus 11:18, also translated as swan. The German word backe is defined in English as “to chew or eat with bulging cheeks; to eat heartily” (Collins Dictionary). This could possibly refer to the swan family of birds, which do not posses a true crop but instead have an expandable esophagus that allows them to hold lots of food, or eat heartily with a bulging throat, if not cheeks. In this case, ducks, geese, and swans are all unclean birds unfit for human consumption by Levitical health law standards.