Neck of the Woods

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Stacy from Boulder, Colorado.

Well, hello Stacy, what’s going on?

I just have a question about the phrase, Nick of the Woods, as in, how are things in your Nick of the Woods?

I was just wondering where that came from and what is a Nick?

How are you spelling that?

I don’t know, because I’ve never actually seen it written down.

I’ve just heard it.

I would guess N-I-C-K.

Aha.

Interesting, interesting.

And why were you wondering about this? Do you live in the woods?

No. It was probably just because I was listening to your show and it put me in a pensive sort of frame of mood.

And then you fell asleep?

I wonder where that came from.

Well, yeah, actually the phrase is neck of the woods, not Nick.

Oh, really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

N-E-C-K.

Yeah, neck of the woods.

And it just refers to a projection in the woods, you know, like we use the word neck to describe anything that’s sort of long and projecting, you know, like the neck of a bottle, neck of a violin.

And, you know, forests aren’t symmetrical necessarily.

They have projections and irregularities.

And the phrase neck of the woods has been used for centuries now.

You also see neck of a meadow or neck of land, that kind of thing, to describe topographical features.

It used to be in this country, in, say, the 19th century, you could talk about people being in a particular neck of the woods, specifically meaning part of a wooded area, and then later it just came to mean any settlement in a wooded area.

But it’s kind of fossilized right now.

Yeah.

It’s fossilized as neck of the woods.

We don’t really that often say or hear or see neck of anything else used in that way, do we?

Right.

Exactly.

It’s kind of jokingly rustic.

I mean, I might talk about, Grant, how are things going in your neck of the woods, but it’s New York City.

There’s the ramble in Central Park.

Does that count?

I don’t think so.

The woods of skyscrapers.

Yeah.

Yeah, there we go.

Sure, the forest of the city, the steel and the glass and the towers and stones, sure.

So, Stacey, does that help?

It’s neck and not neck.

Yeah, it does, but good to know. Thank you.

All right.

You’re welcome. Thanks for calling, Stacey.

Bye.

Bye-bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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