{{Short description|Term that describes an insignificant location}} {{wikt|Podunk|podunk}} {{other uses}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} thumb|upright=1.3|1874 cartoon of a farmer bartering chickens in exchange for a subscription to the "''Podunk Weekly Bugle''" The terms '''''podunk''''' and '''''Podunk Hollow''''' in American English denote or describe an insignificant, out-of-the-way, or even completely fictitious town.<ref name="Nick Bacon 2013">Nick Bacon. "Podunk After Pratt: Place and Placelessness in East Hartford, CT." In ''Confronting Urban Legacy: Rediscovering Hartford and New England’s Forgotten Cities.'' Xiangming Chen and Nick Bacon (eds). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013.</ref> These terms are often used in the upper case as a placeholder name, to indicate insignificance and lack of importance.<ref name="ReferenceA">Read, Allen 1939. "The Rationale of Podunk." ''American Speech'' 14(2): 99-108.</ref>
==Etymology== The word ''podunk'' is of Algonquian origin. It denoted both the Podunk people and marshy locations, particularly the people's winter village site on the border of present-day East Hartford and South Windsor, Connecticut.<ref name="Nick Bacon 2013"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>Lacy, John. 1982. "If this is Podunk, it is truly nowhere", ''Hartford Courant,'' May 30, pg. E6.</ref> ''Podunk'' was first defined in an American national dictionary in 1934, as an imaginary small town considered typical of placid dullness and lack of contact with the progress of the world.<ref>Shea, Jim. 2007. “Proud to be Podunk!” ''Hartford Courant,'' Jan 22.</ref>
The earliest citation in the ''Dictionary of American Regional English'' is from Samuel Griswold Goodrich's 1840 book ''The Politician of Podunk:''
{{quote|Solomon Waxtend was a shoemaker of Podunk, a small village of New York some forty years ago.}}
The book portrays Waxtend as being drawn by his interest in public affairs into becoming a representative in the General Assembly, finding himself unsuited to the role, and returning to his trade.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/tokenandatlanti00goodgoog |quote=politician of podunk. |title=Token |first=Samuel Griswold |last=Goodrich |publisher=Gray And Bowen |year=1840 |page=[https://archive.org/details/tokenandatlanti00goodgoog/page/n134 109]}}</ref> It is unclear whether the author intended to evoke more than the place near Ulysses, New York by the name "Podunk". Possibly the term was meant to exemplify "plain, honest people", as opposed to more sophisticated people with questionable values. An 1875 description said:
{{quote|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.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Old North State |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 21, 1875 |page=6}}</ref>}}
In American discourse, the term ''podunk'' came into general colloquial use through the wide national readership of the "Letters from Podunk" of 1846, in the ''Daily National Pilot'' of Buffalo, New York. These represented "Podunk" as a real place but one insignificant and out of the way.<ref>Read, Allen 1939 "The Rationale of Podunk." ''American Speech'' 14(2): 99-108.</ref> The term gained currency as standing for a fictional place. For instance, in 1869, Mark Twain wrote the article "Mr. Beecher and the Clergy," defending his friend Thomas K. Beecher, whose preaching had come under criticism. In it, he said:
{{quote|They even know it in Podunk, wherever that may be. It excited a two-line paragraph there.}}
At the time, he was living in Buffalo, moving to Hartford, Connecticut in 1871, in a home within {{convert|4|mi|km}} of the Podunk River. Elmira, where Twain had lived earlier, is within {{convert|30|mi|km}} of Podunk, New York, so it is not clear to which village Twain was referring.
==Places named Podunk== [[Image:VintonsPondDam.jpg|thumb|Vinton's Pond Dam on the Podunk River]] The United States Board on Geographic Names lists places named "Podunk": * Podunk, Connecticut, an area of the town of Guilford in New Haven County * Podunk, New York, a hamlet in the town of Ulysses in Tompkins County * Podunk, Vermont, an area of the town of Wardsboro in Windham County * Three places, over {{convert|100|mi|km}} apart, in Michigan: ** Podunk, Michigan, a community on Podunk Lake in Barry County ** Podunk, Michigan, a crossroads in Gladwin County ** Podunk, Michigan, an alternative name for Rogers City, MI in Presque Isle County, Michigan * Podunk, Michigan, the south eastern portion of the Village of Manchester, Michigan centered on the current village offices, formal before consolidation with the western portion "Manchester" changed in attempts to improve community image, the concurrent USPS designation of the Village of Manchester, Michigan zip code 48158. Washtenaw County, Michigan
Other areas known as Podunk include: thumb|upright|A sign in Holley, New York * An area of East Hartford, Connecticut in the Podunk River basin including Vinton's Pond<ref name="Courant">{{cite news|url=https://www.courant.com/2010/04/30/south-windsor-creates-25-mile-trail-system-through-wapping-park/|title=South Windsor Creates 2.5-Mile Trail System Through Wapping Park|newspaper=Hartford Courant|first=Peter|last=Marteka|date=April 30, 2010}}</ref> * An area, now a ghost town, {{convert|11|mi|km|spell=in}} south of Shattuck, Oklahoma in Ellis County * An area in Dixie National Forest containing a guard station known as the Podunk Guard Station<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fs.usda.gov/r04/dixie/recreation |title=Podunk Guard Station |publisher=Dixie National Forest}}</ref> * Within Worcester County, Massachusetts (and involving three New England towns, each adjacent to at least one of the other two): ** Podunk, an unincorporated area in East Brookfield, according to ''The Straight Dope'' ** The Podunk Pike, which runs from Sturbridge, north through East Brookfield, and into Spencer * An area of northwestern Rhode Island {{convert|3|mi|km}} WNW of Pascoag * There is a [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Potunk+Ln,+Westhampton+Beach,+NY+11978/@40.8089368,-72.6473027,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e8f6ec405cb8cf:0x1b774f3b9bcdfc72 Potunk Lane] in Westhampton Beach, New York, of the same Algonquin origin. * An alternative spelling; "Podonque" is found as a name on a road leading into a settlement area (intersection of County roads 23 and 243) which is still sparsely populated, believed to having been established in the 1800s as: Podonque, Town of Rushford, New York, Allegany County, NY<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alleganycountynylocalhistory.com/CemeteryPages/Podonque%20Cem-Rushford/PodonqueCem.htm |title=Podonque Cemetery – Town of Rushford, Allegany County, NY |work=Allegany County Cemetery List |publisher=Allegany County Historical Society |accessdate=2012-03-25}}</ref> * An area near the Erie Canal lift bridge in Holley, New York * A lake in Franklin County, Maine.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hookandbullet.com/fishing-podunk-pond-dixfield-me/ |title=Podunk Pond Fishing near Dixfield, Maine |accessdate=2020-02-03}}</ref> * Podunk, Wisconsin, a now defunct town containing a sizable Bradner, Charnley & Co. logging camp, in Door County, Wisconsin<ref>{{cite news |title=Local Matters |publisher=Door County Advocate |date=February 9, 1871 |page=3}}</ref>
==See also== * Backcountry * Boondocks
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite news |author=Fahrenthold, David |date=6 June 2006 |title=Life Goes On in a Town Called – What? |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/05/AR2006060501174.html}} * {{cite magazine |author=Mencken, H.L. |title=The Podunk Mystery |magazine=The New Yorker |date=25 September 1948}}
==External links== * The Straight Dope: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_132.html Where is Podunk?] October 14, 1988 * [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9D04E7DC123BF930A1575BC0A967948260 Podunk Revisited] (Reader's letter to ''The New York Times'', August 23, 1981)
Category:Slang Category:Placeholder names Category:Native American slang Category:American slang Category:Metaphors referring to places