'backlands' originates from Old English elements, specifically 'bæc' (Old English for 'back') and 'land' (Old English 'land' meaning 'land' or 'territory').

'backlands' developed through Middle English compounds (e.g., forms like 'bakeland' or similar compounds meaning the land at the back of settlements) and eventually became the modern English term 'backland(s)'.

Initially it meant 'land at the back (of a settlement or coast)'; over time it came to be used more generally for 'remote inland or interior regions' and for colonial/frontier interior senses.