mossback means synonym of mossyback (“a person with old-fashioned views; hence, one who is very conservative or reactionary”). Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.
mossback is pronounced /ˈmɒsbæk/.
Why “mossback” is a great word
MOSSBACK — [Noun] A person with old-fashioned, extremely conservative, or reactionary views. From moss + back, alluding to someone or something so old or unmoving that moss could grow on them; a variant of the earlier term 'mossyback'. First attested in 1865. Unlike a "reactionary," who actively seeks to restore a prior order, or an "old fogey," whose fussiness is often personal, a mossback embodies a deeper, more passive inertia—a stubborn resistance grown into the landscape. He is the farmer voting against the new county road, the judge citing a century-dead precedent, the barn whose weathered siding is reclaimed by the forest. The word speaks not of a chosen ideology, but of a condition of being: having become part of the landscape you refuse to change.
noun
- Synonym of mossyback (“a person with old-fashioned views; hence, one who is very conservative or reactionary”).
- A person who stayed hidden to evade conscription (especially by the Confederate States Army) during the American Civil War (1861–1865); a mossyback.
- Senses relating to animals.; A turtle that, because of its age, has a growth of algae on its back
- Senses relating to animals.; A common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina).
- Senses relating to animals.; Synonym of mossyback (“a fish that is large and old, especially one that has algae growing on its back”).
- Senses relating to animals.; A largemouth bass or moss bass (Micropterus salmoides).