Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 15:16:12 -0500

From: "Frank R. Abate" abatef[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]COMPUSERVE.COM

Subject: PODUNK



Let me weigh in with some evidence on Podunk:



The Index volume to the Omni Gazetteer lists placenames with Podunk in 7

states: CT, MA, ME, MI, NY, UT, VT.



There are populated places or "locales" (such are often neighborhood name=

s)

in CT, MA, MI, NY, VT. MA has a P Cemetery and a P Pond.



In CT, aside from a P River, there is a P Pond, and I have first-hand

knowledge of a residential part of a shoreline town, Guilford (S of

Hartford about 35 miles), which uses this name. There is a P Road in

Guilford.



A look in one of the "national yellow pages" CD-ROMs may well reveal more=

,

though the pejorative use of the name now probably limits its use.



George Stewart's "Names on the Land", p. 338, says: "In 1846 a series of

humorous magazine articles used the title _Letters from Podunk,_ and the

name became established as the joking equivalent of an insignificant,

backward village. In time it sprouted a variant, Squeedunk."



Frank Abate