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Backwood vs Backwater - What's the difference?

backwood | backwater |

As an adjective backwood

is native to or located in a remote rural location.

As a noun backwater is

the water held back by a dam or other obstruction.

As a verb backwater is

to row or paddle a backwater stroke.

backwood

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Native to or located in a remote rural location.
  • * 1885 , , True to the Old Flag , chapter 1 — A Frontier Farm:
  • The house itself, although far more spacious and comfortable than the majority of backwood farmhouses, was built in the usual fashion, of solid logs, and was evidently designed to resist attack.
  • * 2000 , Helen Gibson, " Another Archer Mystery", Time , April 17:
  • Despite the court victory, Archer resigned as deputy chairman and rehabilitated himself by working as a party stalwart in backwood constituencies.
  • Rustic, unsophisticated, countrified.
  • * 1859 , , Life of George Washington , ch. 4:
  • Here, after supper, most of the company stretched themselves in backwood style, before the fire; but Washington was shown into a bedroom.
  • * 1889 , , Cressy , ch. 10:
  • "That's what you mean, dandy boy — for you're only a dandy boy, you know, and they don't get married to backwood Southern girls."

    backwater

    English

    Alternative forms

    * back water * back-water

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The water held back by a dam or other obstruction
  • (idiomatic) A remote place; somewhere that remains unaffected by new events, progresses, ideas, etc.
  • * 1978 , National Opera Association - The Opera Journal page 29
  • It's a volume for those who delight in exploring the backwaters of nineteenth-century opera
  • A rowing stroke in which the oar is pushed forward to stop the boat; see back water
  • Synonyms

    * jerkwater town, one-horse town, Podunk * See

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To row or paddle a backwater stroke.
  • (idiomatic) To vacillate on a long-held position.