'Out in the boondocks'

'People put me down, because that's the part of town, I was born in'

Which is further away, Podunk or The Boonies?

Podunk.

When we need to describe a far-away, undeveloped area, we often refer to going to 'Podunk' or 'way out in the Boonies.' (Sometimes another locale like B.F. Egypt is mentioned, but we won't go there. Too far away.)

Podunk has been used as a point of reference since the mid-1800s. The name is derived from the Algonquin word pautunke, which means 'where you sink in mire.'

Native residents along the Connecticut River were referred to as the Podunk. The Record of the Colony of Connecticut shows that the Podunk were ordered to vacate the area in the 1630s so that the land could be used for farming.

Before they could relocate, most of the Podunk perished during a smallpox epidemic. A small town near Ulysses, New York, incorporated circa 1800, also bears the name Podunk. Legend has it that the name came from the sound Bolter Creek's water made when it hit the sawmill wheel.

The Boonies, or more properly the Boondocks, didn't come into use as a generic destination until after World War II. GIs returning from the Philippines brought with them the word bundok, which is Tagalog for 'mountain'. As time went on, the word came to be used to describe any remote, undeveloped area.

By Sandy Wood & Kara Kovalchik