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Does anyone know whence comes this expression?
neck of the woods
- went to use this just now, and it had never previously struck me what an incongruous term it seems!
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Carpal Tunnel
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living as i do in the land of necks--i live in little neck, just across the river from throgs neck, and down the road from great neck (Little Neck and Great Neck being know to some of you as Little Egg and Big Egg) . a bit further down the road is lloyds neck, and-- one of the more interesting named towns, mad nan's neck!
a neck is a narrow strip of land. in Long Island/NY case is used to describe small peninsulas. Long Island's north shore is a highland--(two overlapping terminal morains) and over the eons, they have been eroding. so the landscape is alternately highlands with deep eroded valleys. the remaining highlands are all Necks. a look at an atlas will show the north shore of LI looks like serated teeth, the south shore has barrier islands parallel to the shore (coney island, rockaway, fire island, etc.)
little neck is almost entire eroded away (hence it is a little neck) the result is a large bay, once home to "little neck clams" my commuter train transverses the bay, it is the best part of my daily commute.
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Carpal Tunnel
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mav, here's what the Word Detective has to say--but before I get to that, I'll post this link you may want to put in your Favorites or Bookmarks: http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/PF/etymology.html---------------------------------------------------------- Necking in the woods. Dear Word Detective: As I flip from channel to channel, I hear a great number of weathermen use the term "in that neck of the woods." I was not aware woods had necks. What else do they have? Where does "neck of the woods" come from? -- F.W. Headley, via the internet. Ah, the woods have many things, my friend. Ears, for instance. Actually, I may be thinking of walls having ears. But I'm sure the woods do too, and you never know what sneaky little woodchuck or disgruntled deer is out there taking notes while you're stumbling through the undergrowth absent-mindedly mumbling about your more debatable tax deductions. I had an uncle once who landed in the hoosegow on the word of a skunk who sang like a canary. "Neck of the woods," meaning a certain region or neighborhood, is one of those phrases we hear so often that we never consider how fundamentally weird they are. In the case of "neck," we have one of a number of terms invented by the colonists in Early America to describe the geographical features of their new home. There was, apparently, a conscious attempt made to depart from the style of place names used in England for thousands of years in favor of new "American" names. So in place of "moor," "heath," "dell," "fen" and other such Old World terms, the colonists came up with "branch," "fork," "hollow," "gap," "flat" and other descriptive terms used both as simple nouns ("We're heading down to the hollow") and parts of proper place names ("Jones Hollow"). "Neck" had been used in English since around 1555 to describe a narrow strip of land, usually surrounded by water, based on its resemblance to the neck of an animal. But the Americans were the first to apply "neck" to a narrow stand of woods or, more importantly, to a settlement located in a particular part of the woods. In a country then largely covered by forests, your "neck of the woods" was your home, the first American neighborhood.
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Thank you sweet pea. I was too busy / too lazy to LIU that time! No wonder it sounded odd - it's American 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Maverick: You're right we Americans are odd. We are South Americans and North Americans and Stateside Americans. Odd lots have come Stateside from odd places and oddly enough have become Americans! They embrace us even though we have an odd way of speaking. The new Americans enrich our language even though they sometimes have odd references and speak with odd accents. I could move to London and become one of Her Majesty's subjects and even though I speak Englisht would I ever be considered English? I think not! Odd isn't it.  WOW
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Carpal Tunnel
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There was, apparently, a conscious attempt made to depart from the style of place names used in England for thousands of years in favor of new "American" names. So in place of "moor," "heath," "dell," "fen" and other such Old World terms, the colonists came up with "branch," "fork," "hollow," "gap," "flat" and other descriptive terms used both as simple nouns.
It sound apocryphal to me. The immigrants took local names, in Boston (England) the bogs are called fens. In other parts of English speaking world there are other names. But the settlers to Boston (MA) have "Fenway park" the area was a marsh, but filled in to make a park. The waters of the fen are now confined to a stream.
These localized names (in England) became regional names in US–there are no hollows in New England, and there are no Gaps– there are Notches (Dicksville Notch is one of the first precinct in NH to report election totals.. Not Dicksville Gap.)
Jo is gap used in the north for a mountain pass? Is notch used regionally elsewhere in English speaking word? the reason i ask is for what ever reason, the more norther the origination point in England, the more souther the destination point in US it seems..
And we have dales if not dells here in NY–the eroded valley of Little neck is "Deepdale"
What distinguishes a bog from a fen, from a moor is plant life. Wetlands in US had total different ecosystems– and got new names. "pine barrens" to be found in NY and NY were a new type of wet land. Bogs covered with stunted pine trees and blue berry bushes. I don't think there are wet lands like that in England ( there are some in Scandinavia) . How do you name something you have never seen before... It might be like some else (a moor or bog or a fen) but its not any of those... So you make up a name.
Wow– do you have pine barrens in Maine? NJ pine barren are the area's with commercial blue berry farms, and NJ is second to Maine for blue berry production.
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Carpal Tunnel
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P.S. May I suggest you JUMP to English As A Global Language and click on Wordsmith's entry on words from newspapers? Very in-ter-es-ting. aloha, wow
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Carpal Tunnel
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Wow– do you have pine barrens in Maine? NJ pine barren are the area's with commercial blue berry farms, and NJ is second to Maine for blue berry production. No pine barrens in Maine that I am aware of but it is a huge state and I have seen mostly the southern seacoast of Maine which is over the border from the New Hampshire seacoast which is where I live! In New Hampshire we have bush blueberries and some large-farm farmers grow lots and you can go "pick-your-own" or get baskets at the local Farmer's Market or get tasteless big fat blueberries at the supermarket. The flavor of the berries, I've noticed, is affected by what the bushes grow near. Blueberry bushes near pine trees are ok, but blueberries grown near apple trees....they're for me. Sweet! Yum! Now, if you want to talk cranberries, those I know a bit about! wow
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old hand
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old hand
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it [Maine] is a huge stateum . . . ever heard of Alaska?
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Carpal Tunnel
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OK, I'll bite.
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