Trivia: Origin of word "boondock"

[BobBski]

Soldiers brought the word back from the Philippines.

[font=Roboto-Regular, HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif]boondocks[/font][font=Roboto-Regular, HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif]. 1910s, from Tagalog bundok "mountain." Adopted by occupying American soldiers in the Philippines for "remote and wild place." ... Hence, also boondockers "shoes suited for rough terrain," originally (1944) U.S. services slang [/font][font=Roboto-Regular, HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif]word[/font][font=Roboto-Regular, HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif] for field boots.[/font]

 

[Gary68]

which is the cause of my amusement at the term"boondocking at walmart"

 

[BradKW]

which is the cause of my amusement at the term"boondocking at walmart"

Apparently you've never seen the pictures...Walmartians are pretty wild. Definitely far out there...

 

[highdesertranger]

thanks Bob, I have read that somewhere before. highdesertranger

 

[AbuelaLoca]

My youngest son and I love researching word origins! The last one was "buckaroo" from Vaquero... He gets pretty red in the face when I call him a lil' buckaroo!

 

[John61CT]

Dockers?

 

[Queen]

Soldiers brought the word back from the Philippines.

[font=Roboto-Regular, HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif]boondocks[/font][font=Roboto-Regular, HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif]. 1910s, from Tagalog bundok "mountain." Adopted by occupying American soldiers in the Philippines for "remote and wild place." ... Hence, also boondockers "shoes suited for rough terrain," originally (1944) U.S. services slang [/font][font=Roboto-Regular, HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif]word[/font][font=Roboto-Regular, HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif] for field boots.[/font]

Funny how words gets brought back by service members.  We had half a vocabulary growing up, that was made up of words my dad brought home from various remote assignments.

 

[Weight]

All this history from civilian experts. I wonder why I never heard this the whole time I was a soldier? Granted not before 1955. But WTF?

 

[John61CT]

Few grunts look up etymology just for fun?

Words/memes spread fast from a niche source into the mainstream, origins soon forgotten.

Scholar linguists document for the likes of OED, which info is now available to all in seconds!

 

[Putts]

I remember wearing boondokers in the Coast Guard in the '70s.

 

[Queen]

When dad was pissed and wanted to know we understood and would comply it as "you bick?", and any large amount was "boo coo". Lots of words, I later learned, were very poorly translated Vietnamese/French/Filipino/Thai words. The language we spoke on military bases growing up was rife with this.

I got to watch him in action when we lived in Italy, he'd learn a few rudimentary words or phrases, then combine words in no discernable order and use them as though he was speaking Italian... since I actually spoke Italian, this was hilarious.

 

[Gary68]

growing up my grandfather ww2 vet would call me dutch in a insulting way when i did something wrong,i couldnt understand it,dutch,wooden shoes,windmills??? never understood until i was watching a ww2 doc and they were saying the same and then explained

deutsch as in deutschland or germany the enemy he fought in the war

 

[TrainChaser]

"All this history from civilian experts. I wonder why I never heard this the whole time I was a soldier? Granted not before 1955. But WTF?"

No www. We were all dependent on the conversations around us, and books.

Queen: "... He'd learn a few rudimentary words or phrases, then combine words in no discernable order and use them as though he was speaking Italian..."

In the 60s, we had a British couple as neighbors, and their daughter was living in the Northwest Territory of Canada, somewhere around Whitehorse. Their daughter spoke English and French. Their daughter's bush-pilot husband husband spoke English and German. Their two grandaughters (4 and 6 when I met them) spoke the local Native language of the area, plus English, French and German. When dad spoke German, they spoke German. When Mom spoke French, they answered in French. When Grandma asked a question in English, they answered in English. But... when it was just the two of them, it was fascinating to listen, as they combined all four languages into their own. I loved it!

 

[Putts]

That must have been fun. My dad, from Belgium, could say, "God dammit!" and smack me in five different languages.

Veering back to the boondocks again, here's some topical music if you've got the bandwidth to click the link.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

In the 60s, we had a British couple as neighbors, and their daughter was living in the Northwest Territory of Canada, somewhere around Whitehorse.  Their daughter spoke English and French.  Their daughter's bush-pilot  husband husband spoke English and German.  Their two grandaughters (4 and 6 when I met them) spoke the local Native language of the area, plus English, French and German.  When dad spoke German, they spoke German.  When Mom spoke French, they answered in French.  When Grandma asked a question in English, they answered in English.  But... when it was just the two of them, it was fascinating to listen, as they combined all four languages into their own.  I loved it!

It's called code switching and it's a common, and well studied phenomena. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching



You also see it among Puerto Rican kids in NY - English and Spanish, and in Hong Kong - English and Cantonese.

 

[Cammalu]

That's exactly what happens in my household we vary back and forth from English to Spanish all the time. I moved my niece and her hubby in with me when I got hurt a few years ago and he is from Mexico. Niece learned Spanish and English growing up and I learned Spanish in my 20s and lived in S America. It's a mess to listen to us.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hepcat]

growing up my grandfather ww2 vet would call me dutch

deutsch as in deutschland or germany the enemy he fought in the war

That's how the "Pennsylvania Dutch" got their name... they are of German descent, of course, but when they came through Immigration and were asked their country of origin, they said "Deutchland" which was misheard as "Dutch" by the immigration officials.

That's exactly what happens in my household we vary back and forth from English to Spanish all the time.    It's a mess to listen to us.  

Spanglish?

 

[John61CT]

My kids' English was their fourth language. Their primary caregivers switched between Khmer, Thai and Laos as needed, as was standard in the villages there.

English was a "Daddy only" language.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

That's how the "Pennsylvania Dutch" got their name... they are of German descent, of course, but when they came through Immigration and were asked their country of origin, they said "Deutchland" which was misheard as "Dutch" by the immigration officials.

Actually, the Pennsylvania Dutch mostly emigrated during the 17th and 18th centuries.  Some as early as the 30 years war.  So no immigration officials to deal with.

At this point, we seem to have a massive thread hijacking going on . . .

 

[hepcat]

Actually, the Pennsylvania Dutch mostly emigrated during the 17th and 18th centuries.  Some as early as the 30 years war.  So no immigration officials to deal with.

I stand corrected, and an interesting fun fact from Wikipedia...

During the Middle Ages the use of "Dutch" in English referred to West Germanic speakers of continental Europe in general. From c. 1600 onward it was mainly restricted to the inhabitants of the Low Countries

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Countries