Podunk

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In American English, Podunk, or Podunk Hollow has come to denote something, usually a place, of small size and is often used as a placeholder name in a context of dismissing significance or importance. The word Podunk is of Algonquian origin. An 1875 example 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.^[1]

A 1915 book gives a folk etymology:

Among the places I passed through on this trip were Scrabbletown, Fog Hill, Larrywog, and Podunk. As to the last an Indian named Dunk once fell off a bridge there and drowned. The whites spoke of him as "poor Dunk," and the bridge as "poor Dunk's bridge," and so the vicinity in time came to be known as Podunk.^[2]

Contents 1 Places named Podunk 2 Other uses 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Places named Podunk

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

• Podunk, Connecticut, an area of the town of Guilford, Connecticut
• Podunk, Michigan, a community on Podunk Lake in Barry County, Michigan
• Podunk, Michigan, a crossroads in Gladwin County, Michigan
• Podunk, Ulysses, New York, a hamlet in the town of Ulysses in New York
• Podunk, Vermont, an area of the town of Wardsboro, Vermont

Other areas known as Podunk include:

• An area around Lee, Massachusetts
• An area nine miles south of Shattuck, Oklahoma (now a ghost town)
• Podunk, an unincorporated area in East Brookfield, Massachusetts, according to The Straight Dope

[edit] Other uses

• Podunk (people), an Eastern Woodlands group of Native Americans
• Podunk (band), a Texas rock band
• "Podunk", the home town of Ninten in the unreleased beta cartridge of the NES game Mother (video game), otherwise known as EarthBound Zero
• "Podunk", the home town of the hero from the game Secret of Evermore for the Super Nintendo
• "Podunk", the title of a country song by Keith Anderson and an unrelated song by Foo Fighters

[edit] References

1. ^ "The Old North State," The New York Times, May 21, 1875, p. 6
2. ^ Johnson, Clifton (1915). Highways and Byways of New England: Including the States of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine. Macmillan. , p. 287

[edit] External links

• Quaboag Plantation Deed (now Brookfield Mass.)-- 10 November, 1665[1]
• The Straight Dope: Where is Podunk?
• The Washington Post: Article: Life Goes On in a Town Called -- What? [2] Retrieved June 6, 2006
• The New York Times: Article: Podunk Revisited [3] Retrieved June 6, 2006