pillion means riding behind the driving rider, as when positioned on the rump of a mount. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
pillion is pronounced /ˈpɪljən/.
Why “pillion” is a great word
PILLION — [Noun, Verb, Adverb] A pad or seat behind the main saddle of a horse, bicycle, or motorcycle for a second rider, who is said to ride pillion. From Scottish Gaelic pillean ("little rug"), from Latin pellis ("animal skin, pelt"). First attested c. 1500. Unlike a "saddle," which is the primary seat of control, or a "passenger," a general term for any traveler, a pillion names the specific, secondary perch of dependence. It is the worn leather pad secured behind a rider, the shared vibration of a motorcycle threading through traffic, the trusting grip of a child on a parent's waist—the physical grammar of being taken somewhere, without any say in the steering.
adv
- Riding behind the driving rider, as when positioned on the rump of a mount.
noun
- A pad behind the saddle of a horse for a second rider.“It was all the greater triumph to Miss Nancy Lammeter's beauty that she looked thoroughly bewitching in that costume, as, seated on the pillion behind her tall, erect father, she held one arm round him, and looked down, with open-eyed anxiety, at the treacherous snow-covered pools and puddles, which sent up formidable splashings of mud under the stamp of Dobbin's foot.”
- A similar second saddle on a bicycle or motorcycle for a passenger.“She was to creep out quietly […] and meet me at our usual trysting place—a spot a few hundred yards from our respective abodes. I would be there with my iron steed, and on the pillion thereof would whirl her into fairyland.”
- The person riding in the pillion.
- The cushion of a saddle.
verb
- To place (a person) on a pillion.“When he had gazed at the stars sufficiently as they shone over his mistress's window, and put her candle to bed, repaired to his own dormitory, and there, no doubt, thought of his Maria and his horse with youthful satisfaction, and how sweet it would be to have one pillioned on the other, and to make the tour of all the island on such an animal with such a pair of white arms round his waist.”
- To ride on a pillion.“I caught the train just after you went (it was a good idea, that pillion ride - though pretty awful pillioning with a suitcase and masterpiece in one's arms!) and dumped the m-p in London on Emery Walker, to be photographed half size and collotyped, 100 copies.”
- To put a pillion on a horse.“Accordingly, he saddled and pillioned his horse, thinking he might have the honor of bringing the bride himself.”