The neck of the woods

When the land was still mainly covered in woods and forests, ‘the neck of wood’ would indicate a specific location; therefore the expression has come to mean a particular area, a certain region, neighbourhood or even home.

A ‘neck’ could originally be a narrow stretch of wood, pasture or marsh, for example. This then evolved to refer to a settlement in a wooded country and then more generally to a neighbourhood.

I will let you know next time I’m in your neck of the woods and we’ll go for a pint

Fancy seeing you here in my neck of the woods!