back lotn.
/ˈbak ˌlɒt/, U.S. /ˈbæk ˈlɑt/ (in sense 2)Brit. /ˈbak lɒt/, U.S. /ˈbæk ˌlɑt/ Originally and chiefly U.S.
1. A piece of land behind a house or other building, a backyard. Also: a piece of wasteland between built-up areas in a town or city.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > courtyard > [noun] > (back or front) yard
yardOE
backside1450
stead1546
outyard1600
lot1657
backyard1659
outlet1667
area1712
back lot1714
backlet1724
door-yardc1764
front yard1767
rear yard1800
tenement yard1874
sitooterie1994
1714 Laws Province Pennsilvania 123 To each Patent for a back Lot, four shillings and six Pence.
1805 Raleigh Reg. & N.-Carolina Gaz. 14 Jan. Back lots on the same square.
1895 Harper's Mag. May 850/1 A narrow little patch of the kingdom—a sort of back lot, as one may say.
1966 New Scientist 28 July 222/1 Black gold in the back lot must be the standard rags-to-riches wishdream in the United States.
2001 Village Voice (N.Y.) 27 Nov. 62/1 Sentenced to brush clearing in the back lot.
2. Usually in form backlot. In the film industry: an outdoor area behind or adjoining a studio, containing permanent sets which can be modified for different purposes.
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1927 Chicago Tribune 23 Jan. d5/1 Discovered down by the river in the trenches on the back lot of the First National studios.
1930 W. C. Menzies in Cinematogr. Ann. 1 178 Forests, ships, country lanes, mountains, canals, and all, are built up and tricked so that what, on the screen, may cover miles of ground, in reality only occupies a few acres of the back lot.
1976 National Observer (U.S.) 8 May 22/1 They also meander through back-lot streets on which are erected whole New York blocks, a castle that has doubled as the Tower of London, and a short stretch of the Appian Way.
1996 SFX May 5/1 Elstree studios boasts three sound-stages..as well as offices, storage facilities and a backlot.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1714