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The terms Podunk, podunk, or Podunk Hollow in American English denotes or describes an insignificant, out-of-the-way, or fictitious town.〔Nick Bacon. "Podunk After Pratt: Place and Placelessness in East Hartford, CT.” In ''Confronting Urban Legacy: Rediscovering Hartford and New England’s Forgotten Cities.'' Xiangming Chen and Nick Bacon (eds). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013.〕 It is often used in the upper case as a placeholder name, to indicate insignificance and lack of importance. 〔Read, Allen 1939. "The Rationale of Podunk." ''American Speech'' 14(2): 99-108.〕 == Etymology == The word podunk is of Algonquian origin. It denoted both the Podunk people and marshy locations, particularly the people's winter village site on the border of present-day East Hartford and South Windsor, Connecticut.〔〔〔Lacy, John. 1982. “If this is Podunk, it is truly nowhere,” ''Hartford Courant,'' May 30, pg. E6.〕 Podunk was first defined in an American national dictionary in 1934, as an imaginary small town considered typical of placid dullness and lack of contact with the progress of the world.〔Shea, Jim. 2007. “Proud to be Podunk!” ''Hartford Courant,'' Jan 22.〕 The earliest citation in the ''Dictionary of American Regional English'' is from Samuel Griswold Goodrich's 1840 book, ''The Politician of Podunk:'' :Solomon Waxtend was a shoemaker of Podunk, a small village of New York some forty years ago. The book 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. It is unclear whether the author intended to evoke more than the place near Ulysses, New York by the name "Podunk". Possibly the term was meant to exemplify "plain, honest people", as opposed to more sophisticated people with questionable values. An 1875 description said: :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. In American discourse, the term podunk came into general colloquial use, through the wide national readership of the "Letters from Podunk" of 1846, in the ''Daily National Pilot'' of Buffalo, New York. These represented "Podunk" as a real place but one insignificant and out of the way.〔Read, Allen 1939 "The Rationale of Podunk." ''American Speech'' 14(2): 99-108.〕 The term gained currency as standing for a fictional place. For instance, in 1869, Mark Twain wrote the article, "Mr. Beecher and the Clergy," defending his friend, Thomas K. Beecher, whose preaching had come under criticism. In it he said: : They even know it in Podunk, wherever that may be. It excited a two-line paragraph there. At the time he was living in Buffalo, moving to Hartford, Connecticut in 1871, in a home within of the Podunk River. Elmira, where Twain had lived earlier, is within of Podunk, New York, so it is not clear to which village Twain was referring. In addition to this fictional Podunk, there were places named Podunk. George M. Cohan spent his childhood summers with his relatives in Podunk, Massachusetts (now part of East Brookfield).〔Macht, Norman L. ("''Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball''" ), University of Nebraska Press, 2007, p. 20 ISBN 0803209908〕 He loved Podunk and its "hayseed hicks" and made it famous, describing it in his comedy acts. Other vaudeville entertainers later picked up on Cohan's use of the word Podunk and used it in their acts.〔(''Yankee Magazine'' excerpts ) in "The Eugene O'Neill Newsletter", Vol. III, No. 1, May, 1979, accessed March 3, 2013〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Podunk」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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