boonies
UK[ˈbuːniz]US[ˈbuːniz]
n
A remote, rural area far from cities and towns; the backwoods.
Etymology
The term "boonies" is a mid-20th century American English shortening of "boondocks", which was borrowed earlier from the Tagalog (Philippine language) word "bundók", meaning "mountain". American soldiers stationed in the Philippines during the early 1900s adopted "boondocks" to refer to the remote, rugged hinterlands. Upon its adoption into English, the meaning generalized from literal mountainous wilderness to any isolated, rural backcountry. The further clipped and informal variant "boonies" emerged, retaining the core semantic concept of a distant, undeveloped area far from urban centers.
Analysis
The word "boonies" is a clipped and altered form of "boondocks". It functions as a single, unsegmentable lexical unit in modern English.
Examples
He grew up in the boonies, miles from the nearest supermarket.
Their cabin is way out in the boonies, with no cell phone reception.
After living in the city, moving to the boonies was a big adjustment.