'backwood' originates from English, specifically the compound words 'back' + 'wood', where 'back' meant 'rear' and 'wood' meant 'wood' or 'forest'.

'back' (Old English 'bæc') combined with 'wood' (Old English 'wudu') in Middle English to form compounds such as 'back-wood' and later the more common 'backwoods', yielding the modern form 'backwood'/'backwoods'.

Initially it referred specifically to a wood or wooded area at the 'back' of a settlement; over time it broadened to mean any remote, rural, or forested region and acquired connotations of remoteness or being sparsely populated.