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I was listening to your "Bless your heart" episode today on the way to work, and someone called in with a question about "the back 40." It made me think of another couple of phrases I've heard people use to mean "a really long way away," and both of them involve Egypt.
If we go to a mall and had to park quite a distance away from the entrance, my friends might say, "We had to park all the way in East Egypt." A less G-rated version is "We had to park in Bumf*** Egypt."
What I'm wondering is, "Why Egypt?"
cheveuxgris said:
While we are on the subject, where were the original boondocks or boonies?
I remember hearing or reading somewhere that it had to do with the Philipines but I can't recall the whole story now, perhaps someone else can fill in the rest. It was a place far outside the city or the name for it there I believe and I think the Americans used that name and probably altered it in their re-use of it. I'll see if I can look it up.
Kaa said:
I was listening to your "Bless your heart" episode today on the way to work, and someone called in with a question about "the back 40." It made me think of another couple of phrases I've heard people use to mean "a really long way away," and both of them involve Egypt.
If we go to a mall and had to park quite a distance away from the entrance, my friends might say, "We had to park all the way in East Egypt." A less G-rated version is "We had to park in Bumf*** Egypt."
What I'm wondering is, "Why Egypt?"
A friend of mine got an expression from his junior high teacher "Far Rockaway" and since then I've heard that expression a couple of other times. It always reminded me of something the Flintstones would say, but have no idea if there's any connection. Seems to me I actually saw a place named that once on a map and laughed about it.
When something was far away or probably more accurately, difficult to get to, my mom would say it "was like going around Kelly's barn to get there" a friend of mine said that her mother would say something similar - "going around Robin Hood's barn." I believe that though my friend and I have 20 years between us, our mothers were born right about the same time (1920s). I do recall you mentioned this phrase on one of your shows and it made me smile. It sounded like Robin Hood's barn is the more common usage, but then I've noticed my mother's word phrases sometimes were just slightly off the norm - I'm not sure if she did that or her family possibly did it.
cheveuxgris said:
While we are on the subject, where were the original boondocks or boonies?
My dictionary says it's from "Tagalog bundok mountain," and I take that to mean that it's the Tagalog word for "mountain." It apparently came in to English relatively recently (1930). I'd be interested if anyone has an older citation.
Curiosity about "boondocks" took me down a path which led to this delightful article: "American Naval 'Slanguage' in the Pacific in 1945", by John Lancaster Riordan (California Folklore Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Oct., 1946), pp. 375-390). You can find it in JSTOR (you may have access through your public library).
Lots and lots of examples of naval slang - no idea if Riordan's etymology, where provided, is at all accurate.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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