podunk
/ˈpoʊdʌŋk/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.03 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A member of a Native American people who spoke an Algonquian Quiripi language and lived primarily in modern-day Hartford County, Connecticut.
Example Sentences
- "They even know it in Podunk, wherever that may be."
- "Podunk. A term applied to an imaginary place in burlesque writing or speaking."
- "Podunk, like Atlantis, has no locus. Sought often, it is unfound and apparently unfindable."
- "This isn't some Podunk charge in some Podunk court. Charged with four counts of perjury and one of obstruction of justice, Bonds, if convicted, could be sentenced to a maximum of 30 years in prison."
- ""'A Super Bowl win can legitimize us as a town. We're not some small podunk town anymore,'" said Spencer Venable of Indianapolis."
- "Yes the beautiful time every year when this little podunk town [of Pendleton, Oregon] swells to four or five times her size with Round-Up feverish Cowboy types who chew, spit and chase four-legged critters around a screaming arena….check that….That’s normal…"
Etymology
From an Eastern Algonquian, likely Loup A, word or words. Similar names were applied to various small and generally unknown places. By the late 19th century the word came to mean an obscure small town, a use possibly popularized by Mark Twain (see quotation). Carlton and Reed survey similar place names and note a transformation from Potaecke to Potunke to Podunk. Carlton suggests a derivation from the adjective petukque ("round"). Tooker compares Ojibwe petobeg (“bog”) (as Chippewa) and Abenaki poteba (“to sink in the mire”) and divides the word into pot- ("to sink") and -unk (locative). Algonquian expert Ives Goddard says "We have no idea what the word means. You'll be able to find guesses in the sources if you look around. Don't believe any of it."
Word Breakdown
- Root: -
Usage
- American usage
Inflected Forms
Phrases
remote place
Placeholder name § Geographical locations