'backwoodsiness' originates from English, specifically formed from the compound 'backwoods' plus the suffix '-ness', where 'backwoods' combined 'back' + 'woods' meaning the woods at the back or remote woods, and '-ness' denoted 'state or quality'.

'back' comes from Old English 'bæc' meaning 'back' and 'wood' from Old English 'wudu' meaning 'wood'; these combined into the compound 'backwoods' in Early Modern English to describe remote wooded areas, and later the abstract noun-forming suffix '-ness' was added to create 'backwoodsiness'.

Initially it referred concretely to 'woods at the back' or remote wooded areas; over time the term came to describe the characteristic quality of being rural, isolated, or unsophisticated, which is its current sense.