Hello to all you hivers,
the other day I posted The Power Of Wednesday and told an old cheeky story of my youth and how I found out why Wednesday was called Wednesday. Now I had some great engagement and feedback from this from the #hive community and it made me remember another time at the dive shop bar that we discovered the origins of another word or saying.
We have a repeat Guest called Baldrick. That's correct just like the Blackadder TV show character. Now his name isn't actually Baldrick but he has an uncanny resemblance to Tony Robinson and even sounds like him. So everyone calls him Baldrick, even the sign at the airport when we pick him up from the airport says Baldrick. Last time he arrived very late at night and I had a cooler of beer in his room with a note thet read " A Cunning Plan"
So we are at the Dive shop bar one evening ( as you do) knocking back a few beers ( as you do) and Baldrick had noticed a little drama in the background that I'd had to deal with. It was getting a Divemaster to do the night dive. One DM in particular was not fond of doing them and would cause problems when it was his turn but I got everything covered and the night dive went out. Baldrick asked why the Divemaster in question didn't want to do it and why had another Divemaster stepped in. I said " well to be fair he lives way out in the "Boonies" and it makes it a real ball ache and a long day getting home." Baldrick said " Boonies , I've heard that before is that a place?" I laughed and said "no mate he lives in the middle of nowhere, the boonies , the boondocks" I tried to explain it's probably an American expression for middle of nowhere etc but I got to thinking where does it actually originate.
I did a bit of tinterwebbing and was amazed to find out that the phrase was indeed from America but actually originated here in the Philippines. You see during The 1899 – 1902 Philippine- US war the American soldiers would often find themselves in the mountains and in Tagalog "Bundok" is Mountain and so they equated the word BUNDOK to mean in the middle of nowhere and took it home where it became Boondocks and then shortened to Boonies and then used by later generations like me with no reference to it's origin
So there's my second posts on word origins. It's a funny old world really and it's nice to stop once in a while and question something to see why it is the way it is and not just accept things as they are presented to us.
