Boondocks
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The term boondocks refers to a remote, usually brushy rural area;[1] or to a remote city or town that is considered unsophisticated.[2] The expression was introduced to English by American military personnel serving in the Philippines during the early years of the 20th century.[3][4] It derives from the Tagalog word "bundok", meaning "mountain".[5] According to military historian Paul Kramer, the term had attached to it "connotations of bewilderment and confusion" , due to the guerrilla nature of the warfare the soldiers were engaged in [4].
The term has evolved into American slang used to refer to the countryside or any implicitly isolated rural/wilderness location in general, regardless of topography or vegetation. Similar slang or colloquial words are "the sticks" , "the backblocks" in Australia & New Zealand, "bundu" in South Africa, and "out in the tules" in California. The diminutive "the boonies" can be heard in films about the Vietnam War such as Casualties of War by Brian De Palma. It is used by American military personnel to designate Vietnam.
[edit] References
- ^ Williams, Edwin B., ed (September 1991). The Scribner-Bantam English Dictionary (Revised ed.). Bantam Books. p. 105. ISBN 0553264966.
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- ^ Clay, Grady (1998). "Boondocks". Real Places. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 180–181. ISBN 0226109496.
- ^ a b Kramer, Paul (2006). The Blood of Government. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 33–34. ISBN 0807856533.
- ^ Heller, Louis (1984). "boondocks". The Private Lives of English Words. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 20. ISBN 0710200064.
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