Podunk

For other uses, see Podunk (disambiguation).

1874 cartoon of farmer bartering chickens for a subscription to the "Podunk Weekly Bugle"

In American English, Podunk, podunk, or Podunk Hollow denotes or describes a place of small size or "suburb", and is often used in the upper case as a placeholder name in a context of dismissing significance or importance.

Etymology

The word, of Algonquian origin, denoted both the Podunk people and marshy locations.

The earliest citation in the Dictionary of American Regional English is from Samuel Griswold Goodrich's 1840 book, "The Politician of Podunk":

Solomon Waxtend was a shoemaker of Podunk, a small village of New York some forty years ago.

The book portrays Waxtend as being drawn by his interest in public affairs into becoming a representative in the General Assembly, finding himself unsuited to the role, and returning to his trade [1]. It is unclear whether the author intended to evoke more than the place near Ulysses, New York by the name "Podunk". Possibly the term was meant to exemplify "plain, honest people", as opposed to more sophisticated people with questionable values.

In 1869, Mark Twain wrote the article "Mr. Beecher and the Clergy" defending a friend, the Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, whose preaching had come under criticism. In it he said:

They even know it in Podunk, wherever that may be. It excited a two-line paragraph there.

At the time he was living in Buffalo, New York, moving to Hartford, Connecticut in 1871, in a home within 4 miles (6.4 km) of the Podunk River). Elmira, where Twain had lived earlier, is within 30 miles (48 km) of Podunk, New York, so it is not clear which to village Twain was referring.

An 1875 documentation of dismissive usage is:

Sometimes the newest State, or the youngest county or town of a State is nicknamed "Old Podunk," or whatever it may be, by its affectionate inhabitants, as though their home was an ancient figure in national history.

The origin of the term has also been credited to a former village in East Brookfield, Massachusetts named Podunk.^{[citation needed]}

Places named Podunk

Vinton's Pond Dam on the Podunk River

The United States Board on Geographic Names lists five places named "Podunk":

• Podunk, Connecticut, an area of the town of Guilford in New Haven County
• Podunk, Ulysses, New York, a hamlet in the town of Ulysses in Tompkins County
• Podunk, Vermont, an area of the town of Wardsboro in Windham County
• Three places, over 100 miles (160 km) apart, in Michigan:
  • Podunk, Michigan, a community on Podunk Lake in Barry County
  • Podunk, Michigan, a crossroads in Gladwin County
  • Podunk, Michigan, an alternative name for Rogers City, MI in Presque Isle County, Michigan

Other areas known as Podunk include:

• An area of East Hartford, CT in the Podunk River basin including Vinton's Pond
• An area nine miles (14 km) south of Shattuck, Oklahoma (now a ghost town) in Ellis County
• An area in Dixie National Forest containing a guard station known as the Podunk Guard Station
• Within Worcester County, Massachusetts (and involving three New England towns, each adjacent to at least one of the other two):
  • Podunk, an unincorporated area in East Brookfield, according to The Straight Dope
  • The Podunk Pike, which runs from Sturbridge, north through East Brookfield, and into Spencer.
• An area of northwestern Rhode Island 3 miles (4.8 km) WNW of Pascoag

A sign in Holley NY

• An alternative spelling; "Podonque" is found as the name of a road leading into a settlement area (intersection of County roads 23 and 243) which is still sparsely populated, believed to having been established in the 1800s as: Podonque, Town of Rushford, New York, Allegany County, NY.
• Poeville, Nevada a ghost town nicknamed Poedunk after John Poe founder of the mining camp.
• An area near the Erie Canal lift bridge in Holley, New York.
• Podunk, Wisconsin, a now defunct town containing a sizable Bradner, Charnley & Co. logging camp, in Door County, Wisconsin.

Other uses

• The loading dock in Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Disney cartoon to feature synchronized sound, is named "Po Dunk Landing".
• The protagonist in Secret of Evermore lives in a town called "Podunk".
• In the cancelled translation of Mother for NES the Main character's home is a town called Podunk.

External links

• Quaboag Plantation Deed (now Brookfield Mass.) -- 10 November, 1665
• The Straight Dope: Where is Podunk?
• The Washington Post: Article: Life Goes On in a Town Called -- What? Retrieved June 6, 2006
• The New York Times: Article: Podunk Revisited Retrieved June 6, 2006