Boondocks



The boondocks is an American expression from the Tagalog word bundók ("mountain"). It originally referred to a remote rural area, but now, is often applied to an out-of-the-way area considered backward and unsophisticated by city-folk. It can also refer to a mountain.

Origins
The expression was introduced to English by U.S. military personnel fighting in the Philippine–American War (1899-1902). It derives from the Tagalog word "bundók", which means "mountain". According to military historian Paul A. Kramer, the term originally had "connotations of bewilderment and confusion", due to the guerrilla warfare in which the soldiers were engaged.

In the Philippines, the word bundók is also a colloquialism referring to rural inland areas, which are usually mountainous and difficult to access, as most major cities and settlements in the Philippines are located in lowlands or near the coastline. Equivalent terms include the Spanish-derived probinsiya ("province") and the Cebuano term bukid ("mountain"). When used generally, the term refers to a rustic or uncivilized area. When referring to people (taga-bundok or probinsiyano in Tagalog; taga-bukid in Cebuano; English: "someone who comes from the mountains/provinces"), it acquires a derogatory connotation of a stereotype of unsophisticated, ignorant, and illiterate country people.

Expanded meanings
The term evolved into American slang to refer to the countryside or isolated rural/wilderness area, regardless of topography or vegetation. Similar slang or colloquial words are "the sticks", "the wops", "the backblocks", or "Woop Woop" in Australia, "the wop-wops" in New Zealand, "bundu" in South Africa (etymologically unrelated to "boondocks" or "bundok"), and "out in the tules" in California. The diminutive "boonies" can be heard in films about the Vietnam War such as Brian De Palma's Casualties of War (1989) used by American soldiers to designate rural areas of Vietnam.