Boony

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Relating to a remote, rural, or undeveloped area far from towns and city life
2. Describing wild countryside or backwoods territory that lies well outside populated districts
3. Characterizing a far-off, sparsely settled region with few roads and little development

Etymology: Soldiers stationed in the Philippines brought this slang home from the Tagalog word "bundok," meaning "mountain." American English turned it into "boondocks," meaning remote, sparsely settled country far from towns. The shorter forms "boonies" and "boony" came from that longer word, and they keep its sense of the wild outback, so a town that feels like the back of beyond is in the boonies. The original meaning was literal. Those soldiers were describing hilly, forested terrain, and the sense of rough, undeveloped land stuck, while "bundok" itself came to mean only the mountain. Over time the term became a casual way of calling any place remote or unsophisticated, and "boony" carries that same rural, backwoods flavour as an adjective.