It's amazing what you dig up when you are bored. The question was asked back in 2002 but I figured I would add to it. We all kinda know what boondocking is or if someone says they live in the boonies well you kinda know they live in the middle of nowhere. Ever wonder just where the term boondocking came from ? Well for all of you that wished you had the time to look it up you can all relax as I have found out just where it came from. The term boondocking is derived from the word boondock. Now boondock is a loanword from Tagalog, the most commonly spoken dialect of the Philippines. In Tagalog, the actual word is bundok whick means " mountain ". Boondock entered into the english language about 1900 and is classified as military slang.
The Philippines endured a long occuapation by U.S. troops following the Spanish-American War. The U.S. met with guerrilla resistance and much of this fighting took place in the hills and jungle, or what the locals called bundok. It was said that if you were up in the mountains you in the middle of nowhere special you were boondocking.
So now you can spend your summer sitting by the tv just waiting for this term to come up on Jeopardy