Music:
Daytona - Chris Rea - Road to Hell
Boondocks and boondoggles
Boon
(“ a timely benefit; a favor”) is a fairly old English word, dating
back to the 12th century. In light of this one might be excused for
thinking that words such as boondocks ("a rural area") and boondoggle
(“a wasteful or impractical project or activity often involving graft”)
are of similar vintage. However, not only are both of these words much
newer than boon, they are not related to it (or to each other), except by a coincidence of spelling. Boondoggle
is believed to have been coined in the 1920s by the American
scoutmaster Robert H. Link as a name for the braided leather cords that
are made and worn by Boy Scouts; it took on the “wasteful project”
meaning sometime after. Boondocks is also a word from the early 20th century: it comes from the Tagalog
word for a mountain, and was brought to English by the U.S. military
forces who had occupied the Philippines at the beginning of the 20th
century.