BOONDOCKS

Boondocks is a seeming compound word that can trip you up. If it were then you could piece together its meaning. Boon is something beneficial or a favor, and docks a word for the structure to which you can secure your ship in port or device to link your PC with peripherals in the office.

The problem is obvious. What do these two definitions have to do with each other? Is a boondock some preferential mooring given only to some and not others?

Oh, and dock singular can also be a verb meaning to tie up or unload your ship. Oh, sure, that works well. Your benefit or favor gets tied to a wharf or unloaded from a boat. Even better is the definition of “cut off” as to remove an animal’s tail.  Pair that with “boon.” Some favor, huh?

But again, it turns out the word is not native to English. It came from the Filipino native language Tagalog. English-speaking forces occupying the Philippines before WWI struggled to navigate the interior which was mostly mountainous. The locals referred to the area as bundok meaning mountain.

These Americans, being English speakers, soon changed the word to “boondocks” referring to the mostly untamed wilderness between the city-populated lowland and the area which lay behind up into the mountains.

The same nation’s returning soldiers in WW2 even coined another word, “boondockers” for the sturdy boots required to survive the rough terrain. Could the shoes called “dockers” be related?

“Boonies” is another variation of this boondocks. It is not intended as a compliment but is used in the derogatory way as “the sticks” or “yokel town”—all referring to a rustic, mostly undeveloped area.

Really, if you are not a native speaker, or even if you are, when you first come across the word boondocks, what are you to think? Even English-speaking natives tripping over such words find themselves momentarily lost. Is it any wonder people find English a difficult language?

However, I love the way English willingly adopts words from other languages and cultures. I think it makes learning English a rather marvelous adventure where even non-native speakers may suddenly find a familiar word from their own language in regular use by English-speaking natives.

#EnglishLanguage #ESL