| 释义 |
Podunk|ˈpəʊdʌŋk|
[Algonquian place-name.]
1. Also 7 Potunck. A small tribe of Indians formerly inhabiting an area around the Podunk river in Hartford County, Connecticut (chiefly pl. or collect.) Also attrib. or as adj.
1656in Public Records of Colony of Connecticut (1850) I. 305 The Court wearied wth their speeches pressed the Potunck Indians to deliver up the murtherer. 1761E. Stiles Extracts from Itineraries (1916) 136 Podunk Tribe at the dividing Line between Windsor & Hartford East side; between 2 & 300 Men in Philips War; went off & never returned. 1842W. L. Stone Uncas & Miantonomoh 31 The Podunks resided upon the lands now comprised in the town of East Hartford. 1859N.Y. Weekly Tribune 8 Oct. 3/1 The Numkatunks, Quinnipiacs, Podunks, and Quinnebogs, were present from New-Haven and vicinity. 1910F. W. Hodge et al. Handbk. Amer. Indians II. 271/1 Podunk. A band or small tribe on Podunk r., in Hartford co., Conn., closely related to the Poquonnoc. 1935Colony of Connecticut (Connecticut Board of Educ.) (Senate Doc. 53, 74th Congr., 1st Sess.) 1 A few years previously in 1631 the chief of one of the Indian tribes in the Connecticut Valley, the Podunks, had journeyed to the Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies to invite them to see the fertile Connecticut Valley. 1937Bull. Archaeol. Soc. Connecticut Apr. 2 The Podunk tribe had two permanent villages during early colonial times... The largest Podunk village was located in South Windsor.
2. U.S. colloq. Name for a fictive insignificant, out-of-the-way town; a typical small town.
1846Daily National Pilot (Buffalo, N.Y.) 13 Jan. 3a, Messrs. Editors: I hear you ask, ‘Where in the world is Podunk?’ It is in the world, sir; and more than that, is a little world of itself. It stands ‘high up the big Pigeon’, a bright and shining light amid the surrounding darkness. I look back, sir, with pride upon the day when I located in the then unincorporated burgh of Podunk. Ibid. 20 Jan. 2a, The distinguished festival of Podunk is the candy bee. Ibid. 6 Mar. 2b, Podunk is a huge town, not distinguished exactly as the geographies have it, for its ‘fertile soil, salubrious and healthy climate’, but for some of the characters that here do congregate. 1865O. W. Norton Army Lett. (1903) 277, I presume that just about this time of day you are sitting in one of the slips in that ‘Podunk’ or ‘Chachunk’ (what do you call it?) ‘meetin' house’. 1901Harper's Weekly 7 Sept. 903/2 He might just as well have been John Smith, of Podunk Centre. 1933Review of Reviews Feb. 33 It [sc. the 18th amendment] required one rule for Podunk, Kansas, and one for New York City. 1947[see Main Streeter, Mainstreeter]. 1960Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Jan. 27/3 A diploma from Harvard is much more marketable than a diploma from Podunk College. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 30 Oct. 15/5 It won't be just the Podunk liberal-arts colleges that have to hustle. Some of the big state schools, and some well-known large universities, will be out there too—to find new publics. |