Talk:Boondocks

Relevant discussions on other talk pages
Anthony Appleyard 11:24, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Long thread Talk:Boondocks (version 2)
 * Thread Talk:Boondocks (version 2)

Disambiguation
Adding in some disambiguation here; apart from The Boondocks and its related TV article, there is also the movie The Boondock Saints. Can you please organize a disambiguation section or article for me? --Geopgeop 10:09, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Origin of the term "boondocks"
The term boondock(s) entered the English language around the turn of the 20th century when it was borrowed from the Tagalog word bundók which means mountain. ________________________________
 * HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE: The idea behind this term shares much in common with the term hillbilly. Around the world, many cultures have often viewed those living in mountainous regions as somewhat "outsiders" (mga dayuhan). Indeed, merely visiting one of them would require quite a hike (paglakád). A perhaps less pejorative term for the Bergbewohner (if you will) is mountaineer, as it has far fewer negative connotations and can often imply a character of great dexterity and daring&mdash;that is, to go "mountaineering" (pamumundók or pag-aakyát ng bundók).

—Strabismus 08:37, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

I was told it referred to slavery: The docks where Boons (as in baboons ie slaves) were unloaded. The essential question is the word Docks. Surely this has to do with shipping....shipping what?

A vice president at Navy Federal Credit Union told me that the phrase came from some historical shipping docks that once existed in Georgetown, Washington D.C. Georgetown is the furthest point upstream which ocean going ships could reach. The docks in Georgetown were mostly related to the tobacco business but there was a lot of slave trade in Georgetown, so perhaps the person above's reference to slavery is not incorrect. A prominent dock owner was named Boone. According to my source, most ships would stop at docks that were downstream in Washington, but some ships had to go "all the way out to the Boone docks." Reldkamp (talk) 16:37, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Boon docks?
As a Long Islander, (coincidentally, but irrelevantly, my mother grew up in the Philippines), I grew up having heard a completely different etymology: Towards the city, (which on Long Island always means New York City) docks are fixed. As you travelled further from the city, the docks were more likely to float on boons. Hence, being from the boondocks meant being from a remote fishing village (like, on Long Island, Montauk, Orient, Greenpoint, Bellport, one of "the Hamptons"), as opposed to an import/export trade-center city (like New York, Newark, Boston, Philly).

I can't quarrel with the Philippine source of "bundok," but I can't help wondering if the reason such an exotic word didn't stick was precisely because "boon dock" made sense to people. Any ethnologists or etymologists have an opinion as to this? 75.148.21.9 (talk) 14:59, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

Relevent for a Page
This seems awfully spartan and seems to be on the fence as to relevence for wikipedia as it is approaching the area of a dictionary definition.--68.231.174.183 12:12, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Popular culture to disambig
Some of the popular culture entries should be on the disambiguation page. (SEWilco 19:32, 29 October 2007 (UTC))

Singular
The OED says usually plural, but their only example of the singular is Today Marines use boondock clothes and boondock shoes for hikes and maneuvers. This is attributive; more importantly, it offers no support for our alleged singular sense. Please provide a source. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 20:50, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
 * The singular paragraph was:
 * ''A boondock, in geography, is a landform consisting of a slight rise in elevation found in vegetated sandy landscapes, such as Colorado's San Luis Valley. Wind action on sand causes erosion on unvegetated terrain and deposition on the vegetated terrain which gradually rises in elevation, becoming low mounds perhaps five feet (1.5 meters), which are sometimes used by coyotes for their dens.
 * Please do not restore without a source. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 20:07, 8 November 2007 (UTC)


 * In the phrases 'boondock clothes' and 'boondock shoes' (aka 'boondockers, btw), the word is used as an adjective, not a noun, so it's apples & oranges anyways, no comparison, singular or plural. Anyways, that isn't what I wanted to say.  I just wanted to add that in the swamps of SE USA, the above definition also applies (almost).  In the swamp country, locals often refer to the little 'islands' or tufts of land as boondocks too, even though there are no sand dunes anywhere to be seen.  They are formed the same way, only substitute 'water' for 'wind' action, where soil tends to build up around tree roots or other vegetation.  Don't know if it's relevant, just throwing it out there.  Naas-T (talk) 20:11, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

boondocks is arural area —Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.192.116.86 (talk) 05:06, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Natively plural concept with no singular form, same as "Philippines." If someone says they are from the boondocks, one does not ask them exactly which "boondock" they are from. FoxDon (talk) 22:50, 12 November 2012 (UTC)