How far do you have to go to be considered in the boondocks?

In depends on the size of the city you live in. For example, to people from Chicago and its suburbs, 95% of the area of the state of Illinois is "Southern Illinois", including parts directly west of Chicago near Iowa, and all of what locals would refer to as "Central Illinois". I wouldn't call most of that area "The Boonies", though.

If a town has no movie theater, no stores open after 7pm, nothing open Sunday, etc., then it would fall into the category of "The Boonies".

Sean, unlike you I'd say that with a few exceptions, most of our state of Illinois is "the boonies". My definition would be: any place where you have to any place substantial, you're in the boonies. (A small town is not "boonies" if it is near a large city.)

Non-USns may not realize how much of our country, apart from the east coast, is wide open space punctuated only by the occasional big city and the more occasional metropolis. For example, in all of North Dakota, one of our geographically-larger states, the largest city has a population under 75,000. That's decent in itself, but it's pretty small when you're the biggest thing for miles around.

This map shows that Illinois' population is concentrated around Chicago, and most of the rest of the state is nearly empty of people. Even the relatively high density (above light-green) in a few rest-of-state counties is a bit misleading. In each case that density is concentrated in a single city (Rockford and Peoria, each over 100,000) or small region next to a neighbor-state's major metropolitan area Davenport; St. Louis). And in each case, the rest of the county is just about as empty as the rest of the state.

So I would call all of Illinois, other than the Chicago and those four other cities or small regions, 'the boonies'.

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any place where you have to any place substantial

???

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So I would call all of Illinois, other than the Chicago and those four other cities or small regions, 'the boonies'

That may be because you are from Chicago, Shu. That scenario Sean described about Chicago and the rest of the state seems to be true for those who have lived here most of their lives. I found that when I lived in SF, too. There was SF, and then there was the rest of the state...the rest of the world, really. When I told my friends I was moving to Chicago, they said, "You're moving to 'cow country?'"

At any rate, I surely don't think that any place in Illinois outside of Chicago is the "boonies." Heck, I was raised in rural Wisconsin, and I don't call that the boonies, either, though I know my fellow Chicagoans would. I'm, probably more liberal than Sean in my definition of the 'boonies.' Dictionary.com describes it as "jungle;" "rural country;" "the backwoods;" "a remote undeveloped area."

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How far do you have to go to be considered in the boondocks?

If you live in the UK, about 3,500 miles.

What's in 3500 miles? There's nothing before that? Is there a difference between the "boondocks" and the "boonies?" Shu thinks so, but I don't.

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What's in 3500 miles? There's nothing before that?

Only the Atlantic Ocean.

*smacks Richard lightly*

I think boonies and boondocks are the same thing.

From dictionary.com

quote:

boondocks
pl.n. Slang

1. Wild and dense brush; jungle.
2. Rural country; the backwoods.

[From Tagalog bundok, mountain.]

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

boon·docks
n : a remote and undeveloped area [syn: backwoods, back country, hinterland]

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

boon·ies
pl.n. Slang

Rural country or a jungle.

[Shortening and alteration of boondocks.]

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

I find it interesting that the word derives from Tagalog.

Tinman

tinman says, "boondocks -- I find it interesting that the word derives from Tagalog."

It's our only reasonably familiar word from Tagalog (unless you count Filipino, which is perhaps a name rather than a word). It entered our language when US troops in WWII heard the word but misunderstood its meaning, unaware that it meant "mountain".

Interestingly, OED gives boondock, not boondocks. Have you ever heard of a boondock?

Ah...and remember this song...

Down in the Boondocks, by Billy Joe Royal

Down in the boondocks
Down in the boondocks
People put me down 'cause
That's the side of town I was born in
I love her she loves me but I don't fit in her society
Lord have mercy on the boy from down in the boondocks

etc....

I remember that song!

The "boondocks" is not a matter of numbers but, rather, of state of mind. Kalleh had the right idea of quoting a song but I'd say she picked the wrong one. You're in the boondocks if any of the following seems familiar:

I really have a yen
To go back once again,
Back to the place where no one wears a frown,
To see once more those super-special just plain folks
In my home town.

No fellow could ignore
The little girl next door,
She sure looked sweet in her first evening gown.
Now there's a charge for what she used to give for free
In my home town.

I remember Dan, the druggist on the corner, he
Was never mean or orner-y,
He was swell.
He killed his mother-in-law and ground her up real well,
And sprinkled just a bit
Over each banana split.

The guy that taught us math,
Who never took a bath,
Acquired a certain measure of renown,
And after school he sold the most amazing pictures
In my home town.

That fellow was no fool
Who taught our Sunday School,
And neither was our kindly Parson Brown -
(We're recording tonight, so I'll have to leave this line out.) *
In my home town.

I remember Sam, he was the village idiot,
And though it seems a pity, it
Was so.
He loved to burn down houses just to watch the glow,
And nothing could be done,
Because he was the mayor's son.

The guy that took a knife
And monogrammed his wife,
Then dropped her in the pond and watched her drown.
Oh, yes indeed, the people there are just plain folks
In my home town.


This is, of course, Tom Lehrer's My Home Town.

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(We're recording tonight, so I'll have to leave this line out.)

Originally, this was rendered "I think I'd better leave this line out, just to be on the safe side..." Same sentiment, though.

Wonder if he ever had a real line in mind?

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Have you ever heard of a boondock?

Sure. It's where Daniel tied up his boat.

quote:

Originally posted by haberdasher:

quote:

(We're recording tonight, so I'll have to leave this line out.)

Originally, this was rendered "I think I'd better leave this line out, just to be on the safe side..." Same sentiment, though.

Wonder if he ever had a real line in mind?

Nope, there never was an actual line that was deleted but there were a variety of "Oops, I'd better not" lines that took its place over the years as Lehrer performed this one. One fansite I found invited its readers to submit possible "deleted" lines and while many were fairly clever, I don't think any topped the device Lehrer actually used in this piece.