Podunk

[poh-duhngk]

noun

any small and insignificant or inaccessible town or village: After a year in the big city, I was ready to move back to Podunk.

Origin of Podunk

1660–70, Americanism; generic use of Podunk, village near Hartford, Conn.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for podunk

Contemporary Examples of podunk

But that kid from Podunk, now unloading freight at the big-box store, is a universe away from Oxford and a Capuchin friar buddy.
Anthony Swofford on America’s Best War Writer, Karl Marlantes
Anthony Swofford
November 12, 2011

Historical Examples of podunk

The village of Podunk looks down on the neighboring town of Hardscrabble.
The Galaxy
Various
I have an engagement to trim a deacon in Podunk this evening.
Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford
George Randolph Chester
As the Podunk Gazette would say, 'A very pleasant time was had by all.'
On Secret Service
William Nelson Taft
He also had other holdings "neer Podunk," and "on ye highway leading to Farmington."
The Witchcraft Delusion In Colonial Connecticut (1647-1697)
John M. Taylor
In obedience to this inexorable law Podunk was making ready.
The Boston Cooking-School Magazine (Vol. XV, No. 2, Aug.-Sept., 1910)
Various

Word Origin and History for podunk

Podunk

legendary small town, 1846, originally the name of a small group of Indians who lived around the Podunk River in Connecticut; the tribe name is in colonial records from 1656 (as Potunck), from southern New England Algonquian (Mohegan or Massachusetts) Potunk, probably from pautaunke, from pot- "to sink" + locative suffix -unk, thus "a boggy place." Its popularity as the name of a typical (if mythical) U.S. small town dates from a series of witty "Letters from Podunk" which ran in the "Buffalo Daily National Pilot" newspaper beginning Jan. 5, 1846.