Buzz
This term has been in use since the mid-1950s. When people talk about 'the boonies,' they’re referring to rural, undeveloped areas. However, when it was first used over 70 years ago, 'the boonies' specifically referred to the jungles of Southeast Asia.
From Military Jargon to Everyday Use
Originally, boonies was a military slang created by U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War. It described the isolated forests of Vietnam, in contrast to the bustling streets of Saigon and other urban areas. Once this meaning became familiar in English in postwar America, the term expanded to describe any place wild, remote, or far from civilization—especially in comparison to cities. In 1954, the Portsmouth Herald of New Hampshire wrote about Garapan, a town in Saipan (a Pacific island key to a World War II battle), noting that 'The jungle—everyone here calls it the boonies—has taken over.'
Combat helicopters of the 1st Air Cavalry Division fly over an American RTO and his commander during Operation Pershing, a search and destroy mission in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. | Patrick Christain/GettyImagesSo, where did U.S. troops first encounter the word? It was a shortened form of boondock or boondocks, a term that, according to Etymology Online, made its way into English shortly after the turn of the 20th century. It was borrowed from Tagalog, one of the languages spoken in the Philippines. In Tagalog, bundok translates to 'mountain,' and it seems that this term came to be used in English to describe any remote place during the early 20th century when the U.S. occupied the Philippines.
The military's use of boondocks endured and was carried over to Vietnam, where it was eventually shortened to boonies in the 1950s. The word also found its way into other expressions; a 1965 TIME magazine article mentions, 'BOONIES, short for boondocks, is an unflattering term for the backcountry where both the fighting and the living are tough. BOONIES NUMBAH TEN THOU’ describes the La Drang Valley,' site of the first major battle of the Vietnam War.
Other Terms Related to Boon
It may seem logical to think that boondock and boonies are related, but they actually aren’t. The word Boon, which means 'a favor' (and later 'a gift'), has been in English since the 12th century, borrowed from Old Norse. Interestingly, this version of boon has no connection to the adjective boon, meaning 'jovial'—a term that survives today mainly in the expression boon companion, referring to 'a friend who’s always good for a fun time.' This latter boon was borrowed from French and is a relative of bon, the French word for 'good.'
The exact origin of boondoggle, which now refers to 'a pointless or wasteful activity,' is unknown, but it first appeared around the 1930s. The Oxford English Dictionary’s first reference, from a 1935 The New York Times article, explains that 'Boon doggles' was a term used by early pioneers for what we now call gadgets. However, another citation from that year describes it as 'the name for the braided leather lanyard made and worn by Boy Scouts.'
