Podunk

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This is about usage of "Podunk" as a term or name in American geography; for the former American tribe, see Podunk (people).

In American English, Podunk, podunk, or Podunk Hollow has come to denote a place (or sometimes something else) of small size, and is often used, upper-cased, as a placeholder name in a context of dismissing significance or importance.

Contents 1 Development of the usage 2 Places named Podunk 3 The Podunk name in Hartford County 4 Other uses 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Development of the usage

The word is of Algonquian origin; it denoted both the Podunk people and marshy locations.

The earliest citation in the Dictionary of American Regional English is from Samuel Griswold Goodrich's 1840 "The Politician of Podunk", apparently intended for the young. It begins

Solomon Waxtend was a shoemaker of Podunk, a small village of New York some forty years ago.

In the course of fewer than 600 words, it portrays Waxtend as being drawn by his interest in public affairs into becoming a representative in the General Assembly, finding himself unsuited to the role, and returning to his trade[1]. (It could easily have been composed with the explicit intention of clarifying and endorsing Apelles's proverb Ne sutor ultra crepidam or "Cobbler, stick to your last.") Whether or not the author expected to evoke more than the the place near Ulysses, New York by the name "Podunk", the village (however small) seems not to be deprecated, but more likely to exemplify in the author's mind "plain, honest people" as opposed to more sophisticated ones with more questionable values.

In 1869, Mark Twain wrote an article called "Mr. Beecher and the Clergy", defending a friend, the Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, whose preaching had come under criticism. Among its roughly 1800 words, he said of the controversy

They even know it in Podunk, wherever that may be. It excited a two-line paragraph there.

He was then living in Buffalo, New York. In 1871 he moved to Hartford, Connecticut (and then built his landmark residence, adjacent to that of Beecher's first cousin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and within four air miles of the Podunk River). Elmira is within some 30 miles of Podunk, New York, so it is not clear which village Twain was referring to.

An 1875 documentation of dismissive usage is:

Sometimes the newest State, or the youngest county or town of a State is nicknamed "Old Podunk," or whatever it may be, by its affectionate inhabitants, as though their home was an ancient figure in national history.^[1]

[edit] Places named Podunk

The United States Board on Geographic Names lists five places named Podunk:

• Podunk, Connecticut, an area of the town of Guilford in New Haven County
• Podunk, Ulysses, New York, a hamlet in the town of Ulysses in Tompkins County
• Podunk, Vermont, an area of the town of Wardsboro in Windham County
• Two places, over 100 miles apart, in Michigan:
  • Podunk, Michigan, a community on Podunk Lake in Barry County
  • Podunk, Michigan, a crossroads in Gladwin County

Other areas known as Podunk include:

• An area nine miles south of Shattuck, Oklahoma (now a ghost town) in Ellis County
• Within Worcester County, Massachusetts (and involving three New England towns, each adjacent to at least one of the other two):
  • Podunk, an unincorporated area in East Brookfield, according to The Straight Dope
  • The Podunk Pike, which runs between Sturbridge and Spencer.

[edit] The Podunk name in Hartford County

The land for the town of South Windsor, northeast of Hartford, Connecticut is said to have been sold to settlers by the Podunk Indians. About half the area of the town drains into the Connecticut River via the roughly 13-mile Podunk River and its tributaries (as does parts of northwestern East Hartford). In 1659, Thomas Burnham purchased most of this land from Tan-tonimo, Chief Sachem of the Potunk, on which he afterward lived. Before his death he had divided the greater part of his estate among his children by deed, with the condition that it should remain in the family, a part of which is still in possession of his descendants.

As of 2007, highway signs reading "Podunk River" mark many of the dozen or so road crossings of the river. Vintons Millpond contains (barring peak rain or meltoff) much of the river's water, impounded by a dam at the "Mill on the River", a restaurant and banquet hall in the restored premises of the last of a series of gristmills that have existed since before 1750s, often bearing the name the "Podunk Mill".

A street and several businesses in South Windsor also include "Podunk" in their names, especially adjacent to Ellington Road, which also passes the site of the mills.

[edit] Other uses

• Podunk (people), an Eastern Woodlands group of Native Americans
• Podunk (band), a Texas rock band
• "Podunk", the home town of Ninten in the unreleased beta cartridge of the NES game Mother, otherwise known as EarthBound Zero
• "Podunk", the home town of the hero from the game Secret of Evermore for the Super Nintendo
• "Podunk", the title of a country song by Keith Anderson
• "Podunk", an unrelated song by Foo Fighters

[edit] References

1. ^ "The Old North State," The New York Times, May 21, 1875, p. 6

[edit] External links

• Quaboag Plantation Deed (now Brookfield Mass.) -- 10 November, 1665[2]
• The Straight Dope: Where is Podunk?
• The Washington Post: Article: Life Goes On in a Town Called -- What? [3] Retrieved June 6, 2006
• The New York Times: Article: Podunk Revisited [4] Retrieved June 6, 2006
• Vintons Pond area on Podunk River is at coordinates 41°49′10″N 72°35′31″W / 41.819496, -72.59182