Meaning
The district, neighbourhood or general area where one lives or happens to be, as in 'not much happens in my neck of the woods'. Originally and still chiefly American; almost always used with a possessive or demonstrative (my, your, this) and confined to conversational registers. Folksy and conversational; it marks casual speech and can sound distinctly American in British mouths. Regional use: American English.
Origin
An Americanism with a plain but not fully explained core word. In colonial America 'neck' was an ordinary land term for a narrow stretch of meadow, water, ice or trees: Grammarphobia cites OED evidence from property deeds, including a 1637 Dedham, Massachusetts grant of a 'necke of medowe' and a 1699 Providence reference. Etymonline records the phrase itself from 1780 meaning a narrow stretch of woods, and by 1839 a settlement in wooded country, from which the modern 'district or neighbourhood' sense developed. Why 'neck' was applied to wooded tracts is not definitively accounted for, and a rival suggestion, associated with Bill Bryson, that the word hides an Algonquian term like 'naiack' (point or corner) is generally treated as unproven.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- in our neck of the woods
- my neck of the woods
- this neck of the woods
- your neck of the woods
Usage Examples
- We don't get many touring orchestras in this neck of the woods.
- If you're ever in my neck of the woods, come by for coffee.
- What brings a wildlife photographer to our neck of the woods in February?