# When/how "Timbuctoo"~="Podunk"~="Nowheresville"~="Buttfuck, Idaho"; Other languages have sim. names? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 2, 2013, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101 "2013-02-02T04:21:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/61 "2013-02-03T23:01:11Z")
Sarcastic answer in response to a query about someone or something’s whereabouts: “In Hekkifaino, Finland!” I made that up myself. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/62 "2013-02-04T00:26:52Z")
Anyone have a clue about where “Podunk” or “Buttfuck” originated? ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/63 "2013-02-04T00:53:35Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > I’ve never heard anyone else use this but my Grandma, I always assumed it was something she made up, she uses “Georgia” to describe something very far away (which is odd because it’s not that far from Chicago, all things considered): “I’m not going to go all over Georgia looking for some specific cereal you like, this one is close enough” etc. 😛 I wonder if the Georgia ones were coined by Union veterans of Sherman’s army. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/64 "2013-02-04T04:51:26Z")
Cecil’s column on [Where is Podunk?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/703/where-is-podunk) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/65 "2013-02-04T06:40:32Z")
Thanks for the cite. I forgot about the expression “jerkwater town.” Soda jerk? Note that Cecil’s column does not really answer the question. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/66 "2013-02-04T09:10:36Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Close ! It’s Trifouillis-les-Oies (sometime spelled Trifouilly). > Another popular one is Pétaouchnok, as well as the more generic Trou-en-Cambrousse (sometimes Trou-sur-Cambrousse). A literary inspired one is Clochemerle, but you don’t hear that one much these days. I think Pétaouchnok is more similar to Timbuctoo (somewhere long away, and difficult to access to), especially since it vaguely sounds Russian. You could use it for some French village but also for some remote and unheard of foreign place. While Trifouillis-les-oies is always a french village in the middle of nowhere. Clochemerle implies more. It has to be some village where things are going in a weird way, like in the novel. Indeed not much used these days. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/67 "2013-02-04T09:49:59Z")
The Afrikaans signifier for a bucolic rural town would be [Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein), which is a real place. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/68 "2013-02-04T14:07:14Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Thanks for the cite. I forgot about the expression “jerkwater town.” Soda jerk? Almost certainly meaning the micro-towns built along railways to provide little more than water refill for steam trains. They needed water more often than fuel, so the long-range railroads built water stops at short intervals (30-50 miles?) and tiny towns often grew around them. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/69 "2013-02-04T14:41:52Z")
Outer Boonie Land or Outer Fucking Boonie Land if in appropriate company. An elderly gentleman friend of mine (he died a few years ago at 90+) used to say of remote places, “out where Christ lost his shoes.” ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/70 "2013-02-04T15:01:49Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > You may be thinking of [Fucking, Austria](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucking,_Austria). I recall a news item about the town - the mayor said they had given up trying to keep to highway sign up, it kept getting stolen. Podunk I associate with backwoods; I suppose it’s better than Hooterville. I can’t believe that made it on TV (after leave It to Beaver). There’s always Dildo, Nfld, just around the bay from Come-By-Chance. Timbuctoo I associate with exotic and remote. I always assumed that came from Beau Geste and similar French Foreign Legion movies - which romanticized being stuck in the middle of nowhere while fighting the savage hordes (who seemed to object to being conquered…) Ronnie Barker: “I’m from the third world - Yorkshire.” ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/71 "2013-02-04T15:26:25Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > If you just want to imply someplace far away in Norwegian, you can say _Langtvekkistan_, literally Far-away-istan, which was popularized and possibly invented by writers for the Norwegian version of the Donald Duck comic books. And as usual it’s the same in Swedish, _Långtbortistan_, but I don’t think I have seen it in any context other than Donald Duck. Donald also usually emigrate to Timbuktu when he really has made an arsehole of himself. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/72 "2013-02-04T15:28:22Z")
Outer Hickistan 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/73 "2013-02-04T15:45:08Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > There’s always Dildo, Nfld, just around the bay from Come-By-Chance. And how do you get from Blue Ball to Paradise? [Intercourse](http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Blue+Ball,+PA&daddr=Paradise,+PA&hl=en&ll=40.077021,-76.066589&spn=0.204646,0.307274&sll=40.055213,-76.121521&sspn=0.204711,0.30727&t=m&z=12&geocode=FUgoZAIdr5h3-ymTF8zjhGrGiTHGJx4Uzwg_ZA%3BFV-AYgIdy152-ylrrZ8lajjGiTHDDgnAzHmwfg). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/74 "2013-02-04T16:01:02Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Outer Boonie Land or Outer Fucking Boonie Land if in appropriate company. > > An elderly gentleman friend of mine (he died a few years ago at 90+) used to say of remote places, “out where Christ lost his shoes.” By which he probably meant “west Texas”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/75 "2013-02-04T16:42:06Z")
I just remembered that Arthur C. Clarke’s claim of the British “Podunk” is Wigan. That dates from ca. 1960; any Brits care to comment? I do enjoy telling people I live 20 miles outside of Podunk, though. And it’s truuuuue. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/76 "2013-02-04T17:21:37Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > Outer Hickistan 🙂 P.J. O’Rourke once wrote disparagingly about Trashkanistan. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/77 "2013-02-04T17:47:48Z")
I’m pretty sure, at least in college, we often referred to East _Bumble_fuck as they proverbial remote, hick, backwards-ass town. More derogatory than Timbuktu or Katmandu which had the implication of exoticism. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/78 "2013-02-05T01:11:13Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > … > Clochemerle implies more. It has to be some village where things are going in a weird way, like in the novel. Indeed not much used these days. The proverbial town in Yiddish where only fools live is Chelm. Don’t know if it ever was real or when it dates from. I’m blanking on the name of the (non-Yiddish) town/country where food falls from the sky. ---
**Author:** ![kp\_72110](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e68b1a/32.png) [@kp\_72110](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kp_72110)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/79 "2013-02-05T02:07:24Z")
Always heard it as Bumfuck, Egypt too. And I actually read once somewhere that there is such a place. Only spelled different. Something like Baumfouk, Egypt or something similar. Haven’t been able to find it since then but I do recall reading about it many years ago. ---
**Author:** ![yohan\_go](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yohan_go/32/3620_2.png) [@yohan\_go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yohan_go)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/80 "2013-02-05T11:53:43Z")
Balkan term for that kind of town is usually Vukojebina: Place Where Wolfs Actively Procreate. Or, if i can put it down more directly: Wolfuckington. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101.md?page=5)