When you start wondering where a figure of speech came from, you sometimes find yourself on dark literary backroads, if not actually in BF Egypt.
It was during a search for the town of Waldo, New Mexico that my husband described our extremely rural surroundings as “BF Egypt.” And such is the nature of our car conversations on these occasions, I was shortly whipping out my iPhone in an effort to discover just why “B*** F*** Egypt” (to use the full (more or less) expression) should be a common idiom for the backside of beyond.
It was an entertaining search, during which we discovered that all kinds of cultures have an idiom that pretty much means, “Out in the sticks,” if not absolutely, “Farther away than nowhere.” The British do not use “BF Egypt,” which seemed odd in light of their expeditionary and exploratory history in the desert regions. Still, they do seem aware of their adventurous heritage: current British idiom is “in the bundu”—“bundu” being an African word (specific ethnicity unknown) meaning…well, BF Egypt.
Here (courtesy of Wikipedia and its many contributors) is a partial list of popular idioms meaning “a very remote (not to say culturally backward and/or with inhabitants given to deviant sexual practices) place”:
• Anytown, USA and Dullsville in the USA.
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• Auchterturra in Scotland, and Glenboggin, which has its own official website.[30]
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• Back o’ Bourke in Australia (unspecified remote place). Bourke, New South Wales was the terminus of the railway line from Sydney, thus the start of the real Outback.
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• Bally-Go-Backwards in Ireland (unspecified remote small country town).
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• Black Stump or also Albuquerque in Australia and New Zealand (“beyond the black stump” indicates an extremely remote location).
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• Up the Boohai (approximately “boo-eye”) in New Zealand, occasionally given as, Up the Boohai hunting pukeko with a long handled shovel. The Boohai is a fictitious river. It is used to indicate that the answerer does not wish to respond to any question involving “where?”. Up the Boohai can also indicate that plans are apparently ruined or an item is extremely non-functional.
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• The Boondocks (or the Boonies).
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• BFE or Bumblefuck, Egypt (also Bumfuck, Egypt, Butt Fuck, Egypt, or Beyond Fucking Egypt) refers to an unspecified remote location or destination, assumed to be arduous to travel to, unpleasant to visit and/or far away from anything of interest to the speaker (e.g. “Man, you parked way the hell out in BFE”). In Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, this is often referred to as Japip or East Jabip/Jabib. In the Chicago metropolitan area, the term was coined to refer to the region in downstate Illinois known as “Little Egypt”, centered in Cairo, Illinois, for being the furthest from the urban center in both distance and way of life. Bumfuck is also military slang for a remote, hard to get to military base. Has been also rendered as Bumfuck, Iowa or Bumfuck, Wyoming or Bumfuck, Idaho. Bumblefuck, Missouri was popularized by the 1988 movie Rain Man.
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• Buttcrack or Upper Buttcrack (usually a New England state).
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• Crackerland and Jerkwater (from the 1982 film First Blood, small hometowns of typical US Army recruits).
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• East Cupcake.
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• East Jahunga.
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• East Jesus.
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• Four-Fifths of Fuck-All.
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• Dog River, Armpit, or Moose Fuck in Canada.
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• Hay and Hell and Booligal, an Australian colloquialism for anyplace hot and uncomfortable; made famous by Banjo Patterson’s humorous poem of that title. (Hay and Booligal are actual New South Wales communities in the Riverina.)
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• Hickville is used to describe a small farming town. (Hick comes from hillbilly.)
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• Loamshire for a rural county in England (and the Loamshires for a regiment based in that county).
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• Outer Mongolia used to represent a far and distant land relatively unknown to the average person; also rendered as the imaginary country of Outer Congolia
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• Peoria refers to provincial mainstream cities or towns in the US; typically used in expressions like “Will it play in Peoria?”
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• Podunk in the USA.
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• Sainte-Clotilde-de-Rubber-Boot in Quebec, Canada.
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• The Sticks refers to a remote rural location (US + UK)
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• Timbuktu is often used to refer to an unspecified but remote place.
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• Tipperary can still be used to denote anywhere that is “a long way from home”.
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• Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein used to refer to a typical South African small rural town.
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• Ultima Thule can mean “beyond the borders of the known world” or a far-north island.
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• Upper Rubber Boot in Ontario, Canada.
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• Woop Woop, Upper Woop Woop, Oodnawoopwoop, or Wopwops in Australia and New Zealand (often “out Woop Woop” as in, “they live out Woop Woop somewhere”, and used when referring to people who live in a country area unfamiliar to the speaker).
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• Waikikamukau (pronounced “Why kick a moo-cow”) in New Zealand.
Oh, Waldo, New Mexico? It’s way the heck out in BF Egypt. [g]*
*Actually, Waldo is even farther away than that. One of New Mexico’s small ghost-towns, the entire place was bought up by a salvager in the 1950’s and completely carted away. Nothin’ much left.
[This photo from www.ghosttowns.com, which has the complete story of Waldo.]
I think you would be a very interesting person to know.
Dear Nancy–
Well…so far as I know, most people don’t think I’m boring. [g]
–Diana
Rural Oregon here. We usually say BFE or BFWhatever (as in, BF’n Nebraska). Also hear “out in the boonies” or “out in the sticks” a lot.
Can someone from PA explain how to pronounce “Jabip”? Where does it come from?
I’m a Canadian from the West Coast (Vancouver Island) although I’ve lived all over Canada. “The Boonies” is definitely one we use but I had never heard BF Egypt. I use “butt-fuck nowhere” all the time though and always thought the etymology originated somewhere with the movie Deliverance. eg: “We got lost hiking one day and although we were out in the woods in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere, we came across an old rusted out car from the 30′s (eh)!”
Add ‘East’ to some of these and you go even further away…as in east bumfuck…we use that to accentuate the remoteness of a place…from New England but never heard of BFE before.
Diana, it would be interesting to see a person who thought you were boring – if one exists – but I wouldn’t want to know them. I never heard of BFE until now, having lead a sheltered life, but I notice nobody mentioned ‘out in the dingleweeds’. This was sometimes used in south Texas to refer to a remote place for a couple to park and get better acquainted.
I’m in Texas and I hear B*** F*** Eqypt, hicksville, sticks and podunk. I use podunk. I live in a podunk town. :))
About 20 or so years ago we started using Timbucthree, which is past Timbuctu…….
I was born in Finland, we used also “to/from Timbuktu” or if you wanted to get rid of some person, you could sent him/her to “where pepper grows”.
I love this post! Very educational. Korinna, Upper Buttcrack is now my official favorite, too. Nancy, you took the words right out of my mouth (off the page?).
As always, Diana, I was laughing so hard my girls were asking if I was alright! Have heard and used most of the American expressions, but found the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand ones entertaning! May need to pick a new favorite. Thanks for the great laugh!
In East Texas, we always said the Back Forty or Podunk, TX
The boonies or out in the boonies somewhere used by my family while I was growing up here in California. These days (depending on whether really young ears are present) if I don’t know where something is–town, intersection, etc.-you might hear me say: “Where the (h-word or f-word, depending on my mood/level of frustration) is That?!”
Usually use Boo Foo Egypt to be more polite lol
Dear Jeff–
We just say “BF Egypt” round here. [g]
–Diana
Great morning entertainment! I learned BF Egypt in the US Army, but hereabouts we often use “end of the road.” Fun stuff, thanks.
Haha! It was always EAST BUM FCUK in our car! Somehow even with GPS my husband and I still find ourselves in that place when we travel!
I really like the saying “Out where God lost Her sneakers.”
Great post!!! I love random road trip conversations! My favorite has always been Yenemsvelt. Yiddish for no-wheres-ville.
When I was a kid in Kansas City, MO, people referred to locations that were only just barely in the metro area as being, “Out at 98th and plowed ground.” I don’t know if, out of earshot of young girls, people added adjectives!
In Maine we say “in the puckabrush”
So, my fellow Gen Xers seem to like BF Egypt or East Bumblef**k, with the occasional “to hell and gone” used for variety.
My 70-something parents have relied more on “Yenemsvelt” (a fictional Eastern European backwater) or the more vivid “it’s the armpit of the universe!”
(As an aside, I love this conversation! Reminds me of freshman year in university when everyone sat around comparing regional/national slang. Throw in a “purity test” and we’re all the way back in the way-back machine!)
This is great! I had forgotten the term BF Egypt, but have definately come across in the past. I think when I used to live in California, although I did grow up in England. My husband assures me also that it’s not an English saying. Must have been in CA. Thanks Diana, it did make me giggle.