The word boondocks is a relic of American colonialism. British English imported lots of words from its far-flung colonial possessions, and this word derives from the Tagalog (ethnic Filipino) word bundok, meaning mountain. It was adopted into the language by occupying American soldiers in the Philippines as a word meaning any remote and wild place. By 1909, only some ten years after the American conquest of the islands, the word had caught on enough to rate an entry in that year’s Webster’s New International Dictionary. Despite this, however, it remained primarily a military slang term, especially among Marines, until the 1960s, when, probably because of the Vietnam War, it gained wider, civilian usage. Sometimes used as “boonies” today. No relation to the comic series called “Bookdocks.”
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