'backwoodsman' originates from English, specifically the compound 'backwoods' + 'man', where 'back' meant 'behind' or 'away' and 'wood(s)' meant 'forest'.

'backwoodsman' developed from the earlier compound phrase 'back-woods man' (used in the 18th–19th centuries, especially in North America) and eventually merged into the single word 'backwoodsman'. The elements themselves trace to Old English 'bæc' (back), 'wudu' (wood), and 'mann' (man).

Initially it referred simply to a man who lived or worked in the woods behind settled areas; over time it also acquired a figurative/pejorative sense of an unsophisticated rural person, as well as a romanticized image of a frontier woodsman.