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SOMEONE'S NECK OF THE WOODS

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¿Cómo decir vecindad en inglés? ¿Cómo decirle a alguien que estarás cerca de su casa, de su pueblo o barrio?

Como falo vizinhança em inglês? Como fala pra alguém que você estará perto dela/dele, perto da sua cidade ou bairro?

someone's neck of the woods - idiom (also this neck of the woods): The area someone comes from, or the area where you are. Example: 


👨 I’m surprised to see you in this neck of the woods.

👨 Next time you’re in this neck of the woods, drop in.

👨 Actually, I'm thinking about heading to your neck of the woods to see that show.

👨 In my neck of the woods, we have a saying that children are our greatest treasure, because they are our future.

👨 Basically, in our neck of the woods, Russia has the gas.

👨 They are operating in Slovakia and four reactors are operating in our neck of the woods, close to Greece, in Kozlodoui.


SEMANTIC ENIGMAS
Source: theguardian

💭 Where does the phrase "my neck of the woods" come from?


Roger Stocker, London


➤ In Bill Bryson's "Made in America", the claim is made that the origin of "neck" is the Algonquian word "naiack" meaning "point, corner", Algonquian being the name for a North American native language (and indeed language group). This at least fits with other sources recording its first use as in the USA.

Matthew Carmody, London UK

➤ According to word-detective.com: "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.

Alasdair Patrick, Lake Forest, California USA


➤ This is an inspired guess, but here goes: the word "neck", as well as a body part, can also mean a narrow pass in mountains or hills. An region of wooded mountains, that has contributed many quaint expressions to the English language, is the American Appalachians (Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee especially). If anyone has a better idea I'll withdraw gracefully.

Steve Amor, Hamilton Canada


➤ I'm not certain, but it's possible that the phrase 'my neck' could derive from the German 'meine ecke' which would translate to 'my corner'.

Ian Flude, Vienna, Austria
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