# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/81 "2013-02-05T17:21:44Z")
For the longest time I thought the Smithereens was a smattering of islands somewhere in the South Pacific. I searched for it on google maps just prior to posting this (in case it really was). ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/82 "2013-02-05T17:23:48Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Sarcastic answer in response to a query about someone or something’s whereabouts: > > “In Hekkifaino, Finland!” Which is where hellifinos live. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/83 "2013-02-05T18:06:32Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > OED defines Timbuctoo as ‘the remotest place imaginable’. Earliest cite given is this one: For that definition, in Spain we just go for the literal thing: “_las antípodas_” (the antipodes, the place on the exact opposite end of the world). ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/84 "2013-02-05T18:23:43Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > The proverbial town in Yiddish where only fools live is Chelm. Don’t know if it ever was real or when it dates from. Well here’s a real [Chelm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelm), not sure if that’s the origin. > [@](#): > > I’m blanking on the name of the (non-Yiddish) town/country where food falls from the sky. [Cockaigne](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockaigne)? ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/85 "2013-02-05T18:39:45Z")
"My girlfriend is from Atlantic City and says “Japip.” Sure you are spelling that right? 'Cos it’spronounced Ja **b** ip about 50 miles from AC. For me, Bumfuck is generally in Egypt. Nowhere’sville in Utah? AFAIK, every state has its own Nowheresville, likely several. Never heard Timbuktoo used in connotation of jabip, Bumfuck or Nowheresville. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/86 "2013-02-05T18:47:27Z")
[A few more,](http://doohickey.askdefine.com/) some of which have already been mentioned: > [@](#): > > In Dutch […] [o]bscure, faraway places are Timboektoe and Verweggistan (lit. “Farawayistan”); the archetypal small village is Nergenshuizen (“Nowhereville”), or more informally Boerenkoolstronkeradeel (“Kalestumperadeel”, -eradeel being an archetypal suffix for municipalities in Friesland), or in vulgar speech Schubbekutterveen (literally “Scales-cunt-moor”). Lutjebroek is also used in this sense, but is actually a real village. […] > > Flemish usually makes use of either Steenokkerzeel (genuine place name) or Koekelorekapelle (may place names end in -kapelle, meaning “chapel”). […] > > The most common [Finnish] placeholder name for a remote location or a “backwater town” is Takahikiä. Actual locations in Finland that have acquired a similar status include Peräseinäjoki and, to some extent, Pihtipudas, though the latter is mostly associated with the proverbial Pihtiputaan mummo (“the grandmother from Pihtipudas”). They are usually spelled with a small initial letter when they are used as placeholder names. A faraway place can be found in Pippurlandia, which translates as “pepper-land”; “as far as the pepper grows”. Other places, whose actual coordinates are unknown and obscure, but which clearly are far away, are Hornantuutti (chute of Hell), Huitsin-Nevada and Vinku-Intia (Whine-India). […] > > In France: > > Trifouillis-les-Oies (small village) > Perpète, Perpète-les-Oies, Pétaouchnock or Diable vauvert (for a place that is far away) > Tombouctou (genuine town name in Mali) > > In French-speaking Belgium, Outsiplou or even Outsiplou-les-Bains-de-Pieds (Outsiplou-the-footbath) is used for a generic village of Wallonia (there is an actual but little known village named Hout-si-Plout, whose name means “Listen whether it rains” in Walloon), and a hamlet named Hoûte-si-Ploût. > > Among French people of North African origin (pieds-noirs), Foun-Tataouine is the generic village, possibly from the village of that name in Tunisia. The Star Wars planet Tatooine most probably owns its name from the same village, as many scenes were filmed nearby. > > In Québec: > > Far away rural places: > St-Clinclin, St-Meumeu, or Saint-Glinglin-de-Meumeu (far away rural region) > Îles Moukmouk (Moukmouk Islands, some far away islands) > > […] > > For remote or exotic locations, the Germans also use Timbuktu or Buxtehude, as is common in the English language; for towns or villages in the German-speaking world, Kuhdorf or Kuhkaff (lit. cow village, somewhat derogatory) and Kleinkleckersdorf (lit. Little Make-a-mess village), Kleinsiehstenich (lit. Small-can’t-see) or Hintertupfing/Hintertupfingen (usually implies that some small, rural and old-fashioned village is meant), in Austria Hinterdupfing are in usage. […] > > In Greek […] [f]or locations, stou diaolou ti mana “at the devil’s mother” serves as a placeholder for a distant place. […] > > A vulgar [Hebrew] term for an unspecified place mostly popular in the Israel army is פִיזְדֶלוֹך (pizdelokh, formed from the Russian pizda, pussy, and the German and Yiddish Loch = hole). Also quite common is תיז (א)נביא (Tiz (e) Nabi “the prophet’s ass”, from Arabic), and again Timbuktu. […] > > [Hungarian] Place names: Mucsaröcsöge (ending sounds similar to röfög - to grunt), Bivalybasznád (literally: buffaloyouwouldfuck), Tiszaszétszaród or Jászbivalyhónalja: little village or boonies far out in the countryside, Kukutyin or Piripócs: νillage or small town somewhere in the countryside […] > > In Italian […] [a] place far away and difficult to reach is a casa del diavolo (literally in the devil’s house) or, more vulgar, in culo ai lupi (in the ass of wolves); the name of the Sicilian town of Canicattì is also used. Mainly in Sicily, one can say: dove ha perso le scarpe il Signore (where Our Lord lost his shoes) or dove ha perso la camicia Cristo (where Christ lost his shirt). […] > > Probably the best known [Lithuanian] derogatory placeholder name for a village or a rural town is Bezdonys (an actually existing village). The name literally means “Farting village” in Lithuanian, although the actual origin of the name is Slavonic name of the nearby lake Бездонный (Bezdonniy), meaning “Bottomless”. Another also well known derogatory placeholder name for a village or city is Kalabybiškis (“Chiseled Penisdubious Lithuanian village”). […] > > The generic [Polish] name for a village or a remote small town is Pipidówka, or its more derogatory version Pipidówa. A vulgar, but frequently used term to describe a small and dull place is Zadupie which is an equivalent of English shithole. Sometimes, although rarely, Pacanów can also be used, which has the same meaning that US Dullsville but is actually a little town in central Poland. […] > > In European Portuguese […] Cascos-de-rolha (cork hooves) is used to designate a remote and uninteresting location. Onde o vento faz a curva (where the wind turns around) or Onde Judas perdeu as botas (where Judas lost his boots) is a very far away place. Cu-do-conde (Count’s ass) or Cu-de-Judas (Judas’ ass) are used for the same as “Cascos-de-Rolha”, but are considered more un-polite. […] > > In Romanian […] Cucuieţii-din-Deal is a name for obscure and remote places. La mama dracului or la mama naibii (“where the devil’s mother dwells”, lit. “at the devil’s mother”) also means a very remote place. […] > > In Russian […] [o]ne of the most commonly used phrases is у чёрта на куличках (lit. “at the devil’s allotment”), which is roughly equal to English “at the world’s end” and “in the back of beyond”. > > Various city names are often employed as placeholders. For instance, to denote a remote, obscure place, Тьмутаракань (Tmutarakan, an ancient Crimean city) is used. > > The capital of the Russian backwoods is Урюпинск (Uryupinsk, a town in central Russia), although recently Бобруйск (Babruysk, a Belarussian city), has gained its popularity in the Russian Internet community. > > Куда Макар телят не гонял (“There, where Makar didn’t take calfs”), meaning “far-far away” or “somewhere, you won’t like”. > > In some occasions in literature (a novel by famous Russian and Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol) unknown places are referred to as …ское место (featuring a widespread adjective ending ской). […] > > A derogatory kadigan for a remote and uninteresting town is Мухосранск (Mukhosransk, “Fly’s Shit Town”). […] > > In Slovak […] [t]he standard placeholder for a place name is Horná Dolná (lit. “Upper Lower”, a reference to a common type of village name which takes the form of a feminine adjective ending in -á, e.g. Terchová). It is often used in derogatory fashion to indicate a tiny and remote village (compare US English Hicksville). […] > > [Latin American Spanish:] Cochinchina, an actual term used to refer to various southern regions in Vietnam, is used commonly to refer to a remote and extremely far place, and most likely non-existential, it is also commonly place after China and at the end in a list of remote places or to mean “here and everywhere” (aquí, en la China, y en la Conchinchina). > > La loma de la mierda: (Lit. The hill of the shit) A very remote place (Argentina, Vulgar). La loma del orto (Lit. The hill of the anus) (Also vulgar) > > La concha de la lora: (Argentina, Vulgar), Lit. The female parrot’s vagina) An unspecified, possibly remote place, usually used as an insult, (The speaker commands someone to go there). Plumas verdes (Green feathers, a more polite euphemism for Concha de la lora) […] > > Place names in Swedish are colorful: Someplace far away can be called Tjotaheiti (which is derived from “to Tahiti”) or Långtbortistan, Farawaystan, a play on -stan created in the Swedish edition of Donald Duck. Häcklefjäll is a commonly used as a name for a generic remote village, which is actually a synonym for the Icelandic volcano Hekla. Well, you asked. ---
**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, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/87 "2013-02-05T19:49:39Z")
Thanks to all. The site cited above is terrific–it has stuff on all placeholders, eg doohickey, thingamajigs, widgets. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/88 "2013-02-05T20:21:18Z")
Leave us not forget Hell’s half-acre. ---
**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 5, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/89 "2013-02-05T21:41:31Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Timbuctoo Where did you get this odd spelling from? Are you aware that the standard spelling is Timbuktu? ---
**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 5, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/90 "2013-02-05T21:55:11Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Where did you get this odd spelling from? Are you aware that the standard spelling is Timbuktu? Maybe he went to school with Timothy Buck the second. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@Bob\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_X)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/91 "2013-02-05T22:01:30Z")
Russian for Timbuktu is Tmutarakan, which was an important place for a couple thousand years, controlling the strait east of Crimea leading from the Black Sea to the Azov and from there up the Don river to the “Varangian route” north or the “Khazar portage” to the Volga, Caspian, and points east. It was the Greek colony of Phanagoria but when the Byzantines were ousted by the Turkic-speaking Khazars, the viceroy there was called the _Tamantar Khan_ “ruler of the crossing” from which came the name _Tmutarakan_ when the Kievan Rus took the town. When Genoa and the Crimean Tatars were fighting for the area in the 14th century, the Tatars lobbed plague-infected corpses at the Italians during the siege of Caffa on the west side of the strait, and this was the vector by which the Black Death came to Europe. The result in the Crimea was that the entire area was depopulated, and the site of Tmutarakan became buried in blowing sand so that nobody could even figure out where it had been until it was rediscovered over 400 years later. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/92 "2013-02-06T08:11:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Häcklefjäll is a commonly used as a name for a generic remote village … No. It’s a euphemism for Hell and it’s only used in the now rather obsolete expression _Dra åt Häcklefjäll!_ = Go to Hell! ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/93 "2013-02-06T09:34:43Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Where did you get this odd spelling from? Are you aware that the standard spelling is Timbuktu? It’s a old Victorian/earlier-era spelling of the name; cf “Hindoostan” (Nowadays Hindustan) in India. ---
**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 6, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/94 "2013-02-06T15:42:18Z")
Yeah. What he said. Actually, I was very sleepy. I post GQ queries the way other people get hypnagogic jerks, ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/95 "2013-02-06T18:48:01Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > OED defines Timbuctoo as ‘the remotest place imaginable’. That’s strange, I thought that Hawaii was the remotest. Ironic that Timbuctu used to be the trade capital of the western world, and Hawaii is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. ---
**Author:** ![Eurograff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Eurograff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eurograff)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/96 "2013-02-08T09:40:01Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > (In Finnish) A faraway place can be found in Pippurlandia, which translates as “pepper-land”; “as far as the pepper grows”. It’s true that a generic faraway foreign exotic place is often called in Finnish “missä pippuri kasvaa”; “where the pepper grows”, with similar meaning as Timbuktu. However, I’ve never heard this to be in form of “Pippurlandia”, which sounds more comical than anything else. A local variation of “where the pepper grows” is common in some other European languages too. > [@tdn](#): > > Ironic that Timbuctu used to be the trade capital of the western world, … Indeed it was (well, at least one of those), yet at the same time it also was very remote. Remember that before the colonization of Africa in the end of the 19th century, the way for Europeans to get to Timbuktu was with a camel caravan over the Sahara. In the Zagora oasis of southern Morocco there’s a well-known sign pointing towards the caravan route to the desert. It says: “Timbuktu, 52 days”. That’s how remote it was. Secondly, the period of Timbuktu’s greatness was during the late Middle Ages of Europe. People would know it as an exotic marvellous city somewhere very far away. But in the early modern times of Europe, Timbuktu was already in decline, it wasn’t such an important trade center anymore. This contributed to its becoming legendary, since Europeans would be aware of a great city by that name, but they couldn’t be sure if it actually existed (anymore). Regarding Podunks and Nowheresvilles, I was reminded of one passable saying. In Balkan, especially in Serbia, the nation of Montenegro is said to be a land “behind God’s back” (“zemlja Bogu za leđima” or something similar). This neighbor-degrading name has spread all over Balkan in different languages in a more general way to refer to a region of unimportant remote villages. And not restricted to Balkan states, it’s popular even in Finnish “Jumalan selän takana”. However, that particular saying can have other meanings with very different connotations. In German, “Hinter Gottes Rücken” was used after the WWII to imply that the war had been fought “behind God’s back”, not referring to any particular land or location, but to the notion that the German soldiers had been fighting for all the wrong reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/97 "2013-02-08T10:07:25Z")
> [@Eurograff](#): > > A local variation of “where the pepper grows” is common in some other European languages too. In Swedish it’s only used the same way as _Häcklefjäll_, mentioned earlier in this thread, meaning “Get lost!”, “Go away!”. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/98 "2013-02-08T12:44:14Z")
When I was a child (in the US), a generic expression for some arbitrary remote area was “Kingdom Come”, which I eventually figured was probably from “…thy kingdom come…” in the Lord’s Prayer. The expression was frequently used to describe where someone had to park their car because there wasn’t anywhere to park close by. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/99 "2013-02-08T17:42:21Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > [A few more,](http://doohickey.askdefine.com/) some of which have already been mentioned: > > [Latin American Spanish:] Cochinchina, an actual term used to refer to various southern regions in Vietnam, is used commonly to refer to a remote and extremely far place, and most likely non-existential, it is also commonly place after China and at the end in a list of remote places or to mean “here and everywhere” (aquí, en la China, y en la Conchinchina). > > Well, you asked. _La Conchinchina_ is also used in Spain’s Spanish to indicate a distant and exotic place, wonder why they specified Latin American. For rude distant locations: - _donde Cristo dio las tres voces_ (where Christ shouted three times), - _en el quinto coño_ (in the fifth cunt), - _en la quinta ostia_ (in the fifth Host), - _en la qunta leche_ (in the fifth milk; understood to be an euphemism for the two above). But it’s also highly common to make up something on the spot. Extra points if it rhymes: _donde Napoleón perdió su cochon_ (where Napoleon lost his pig, using the French word to make it rhyme). ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101/100 "2013-02-09T04:12:35Z")
One I’ve come across several times for a remote rural village in a Canadian context is Creeping Stubble, Saskatchewan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-timbuctoo-podunk-nowheresville-buttfuck-idaho-other-languages-have-sim-names/649101.md?page=6)