Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Spotted this one today between two trees in my neck of the woods. Google confirms that it isn’t a lusus naturae.
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Honzik20, I’ll confess I was very skeptical of this, but to my surprise it is quite an active phrase. G-search brought almost 10,000 returns using the phrase just as you stated. I think the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of it being an eggcorn. “Next” being used for “neck” makes sense because “neck” is very rarely used in this way except for phrases like “neck of the woods”. “Bottleneck” is popular but it is not close enough in concept to alert every hearer of “neck of the woods” that, yes, you did in fact hear “neck”. So….in classic eggcorn formation, I believe the hearer substitutes “next” for “neck” because “next” refers to the location being further away, more remote. So there is that imagery we discuss so often here, which in turn creates a beautiful and logical substitution for the original word.
Good submission!
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OED Online: neck n.1, 7b. orig U.S. A narrow stretch of wood, pastures, ice, etc. Now usually in neck of the woods: a settlement in wooded country, or a small or remotely situated community. . . in this neck of the woods: in the vicinity, around here
I’m sorry, I just don’t see the imagery connection between “next” and “neck”.
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That’s just it, Brooksie. The imagery is usually different, but it’s the context of the parent word and the eggcorn that convey a similar notion, albeit from different imagery. As your definition states, “remotely situated”. I think that’s where the eggcorn springs from. The uninformed hearer doesn’t understand “neck” in this context and, after a quick run through the brain’s database, decides “next” must have been uttered. It makes a decent substitution in that it also can convey something being further away, more remote. I can think of no other explanation for the frequency of “next” in this context.
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