"Boonies"?

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This is not a stumper, because I do not know the answer. Where did the phrase, "Out in the boondocks (or boonies)" come from?

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), January 24, 2002

Answers

I would guess Daniel Boone, maybe; I will research it.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), January 24, 2002.

Webster has it listed as Main Entry: boon·docks Pronunciation: 'bün-"däks Function: noun plural Etymology: Tagalog bundok mountain Date: circa 1909 1 : rough country filled with dense brush 2 : a rural area : STICKS

I found one of the webster entry for sticks interesting. 7 plural : remote usually rural districts regarded especially as backward, dull, or unsophisticated :BOONDOCKS

-- Gary (central Ohio) (gws@columbus.rr.com), January 24, 2002.


Go to :www.sdreader.com/php, about half way down.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), January 24, 2002.

Thats not working either, just go to google, type in boonies origin, hit google search, within brackets.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), January 24, 2002.

Here's the info I found, Cathy:

The boondocks means wild country or (in Australian) the outback. It comes from the Philippines Tagalog term bundoc, meaning mountain or jungle.

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), January 25, 2002.



That is so cool-I LOVE word origins. Heres another description of far off remote places- "back of Beyond" I've only heard it refered to in Appalachia, has anyone else heard this?

-- Kelly(KY) (homearts2002@yahoo.com), January 25, 2002.

My Dad always said, "we lived out in the Boonies ---at a place where ya can't get to there from here!!!"

-- Sonda in Ks. (sgbruce@birch.net), January 25, 2002.

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