# Petaouchnok les Indes



## lordterrin

So, there are several French and Suisse students here at the school I work that keep saying this phrase, and none of them can give me any type of translation in English.

Is anyone familiar with this expression?


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## ZONGO

You could also say "à babeloued" for instance. It means that something seems really far away and most of the time that you have no intention of going there.


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## Quenelle_Lyonnaise

Well Pétaouchnok is one of the many words/expressions we have to talk about a place we don't really care about and that's very far away, or that actually doesn't exist. For example, you're telling me you're going on holidays to some small village in a deserted area in any country of the world, so I'll be saying something like 'Il va à pétaouchnock'. Here (http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/Pétaouchnok#fr) you can find a proper definition. 

As for a translation, I'm afraid I can't think of anything, but maybe some natives will. And the fact that there is, as you suggested, '_les Indes_' after, is just another way of saying it, people sometimes like to add their own special touch to it


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## lordterrin

It might be similar to an expression that people use here in California, "BFE".  It stands for Butt Fucking Egypt.  I might use it if, for example, my parents and I went on vacation to some really stupid place in the middle of nowhere, and I got a call from a friend of mine.  If a friend of mine called me and asked where I was, I could say "Oh we're in the middle of BFE!!"

Does this sound about right?


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## carolineR

Pétaouchnok can also be called Trifouillis-les-Oies. It's definitely some really stupid place in the middle of nowhere, so I guess BFE is just right, especially if BFE is in the sticks.


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## Punky Zoé

Hi

Maybe there ? But it's the first time I see it followed by a country name...


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## Alpes

_The middle of nowhere _is possible for those of us too "collet monté" to use Butt...
Alpes


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## Barns

You could say "Timbuktu" in English.


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## wildan1

_Timbuktu _suggests someplace very far-away and exotic
_Podunk, Hicksville._ or _"BFE"_ (or _East Bumfuck,_ as I have heard it called!) suggests someplace small, boring, middle of nowhere


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## custard apple

Can you say un truc = a hole ?


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## FannyB

I'm not sure what you mean c a, could you be more specific?

Pétaouchnok _les Indes _est plutôt savoureux, je ne connaissais pas, mais Pétaouchnok et Trifouilly les Oies n'ont pas la même connotation, Pétaouchnok impliquant une grande distance _c'est à Pétaouchnok!_ alors que Trifouilly evoque la campagne (_la cambrousse) _mais pas forcément très loin.
I can't seem to find English names, maybe because England is smaller and more populated than say the States or Australia, but there are phrases like _the back of beyond _and others which have already been mentioned.


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## Punky Zoé

custard apple said:


> Can you say un truc = a hole ?


Do you mean "un trou" ? Yes we may say it in French.


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## carolineR

Punky Zoé said:


> Do you mean "un trou" ? Yes we may say it in French.


... and we often add "perdu" ou "paumé"
un trou perdu/ un trou paumé 
more vulgar : le trou du cul du monde:
il a été muté dans le trou du cul du monde


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## Barns

Given FannyB's post, I would say _Pétaouchnok _is more like "Timbuktu" and "Trifouilly les Oies" more like Alpes' "middle of nowhere" or FannyB's "back of beyond".

And "the arsehole of the world" can be said in English as well if that's what you're getting at.


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## wildan1

Barns said:


> Given FannyB's post, I would say _Pétaouchnok _is more like "Timbuktu" and "Trifouilly les Oies" more like Alpes' "middle of nowhere" or FannyB's "back of beyond".
> 
> And "the arsehole of the world" can be said in English as well if that's what you're getting at.


 
_an asshole _in AE would always refer to a person: the _biggest asshole in the world-- le plus grand con du monde_

for a place we would say _the armpit of the world (l'assaille)_


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## Barns

Yeh, sorry, I think, in BE, it's more the "arse end of the world", however I think we often vary between the two in common parlance. "_my bad_"


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## akaAJ

"Timbuktu" is distant and exotic (but not necessarily attractive).  I've never heard EBF, but "East Jesus", "Podunk", and "Hicksville" are common for "wide places in the road", "one horse towns".  When I was a child in Brooklyn, our horizons were narrower: "Going to Canarsie"  (a swampy neighborhood at the southeastern rdge of Brooklyn), was equivalent to "going to the ends of the earth".

armpit = aisselle


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## lordterrin

Awesome.  You guys rock!  Now I just have to find a way to work this into everyday speech


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## custard apple

Thanks Fanny B and Punky Zoe.  Yes I did mean un trou.  A French teacher was teaching me colloquialisms that were trendy.  In Australia young cool people wouldn't say Timbuktou but they would say a hole.


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## Punky Zoé

custard apple said:


> Thanks Fanny B and Punky Zoe.  Yes I did mean un trou.  A French teacher was teaching me colloquialisms that were trendy.  In Australia young cool people wouldn't say Timbuktou but they would say a hole.


And CarolineR who gave examples of expressions using "trou"...


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## FannyB

custard apple said:


> Thanks Fanny B and Punky Zoe. Yes I did mean un trou. A French teacher was teaching me colloquialisms that were trendy. In Australia young cool people wouldn't say Timbuktou but they would say a hole.


YVW, custard apple, had a rethink and remembered _un bled (paumé _de préférence_) _and _godforsaken place_. (both sound dated though)
Still a bit miffed at not being able to come up with a British Pétaouchnok or T-l-O! All the more surprising when you think of all the imaginary places you read about in British literature (faraway places which can also be rural and/or tiny and/or out-of-the-way..like Neverland, Wessex, Hogwarts, St Mary Meade.. ) That's just me being facetious on a Monday morning.


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## custard apple

A BIG apology to CarolineR - as soon as I hit the "send" button, I knew I did something wrong !


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## custard apple

You are right FannyB.  It's much easier in Australia where so many places are spread out.  Even within one city e.g. Sydney, I have worked in holes.


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## Keith Bradford

For the domestic but godforsaken, British writers have invented many placenames along the lines of Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, Stackton Tressel, Llaregyb...  Few measure up to the real-life Nether Wallop and Wyre Piddle.

For the remote, exotic but undesirable: Timbuktu.

For either: the back of beyond.


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## FannyB

custard apple said:


> You are right FannyB. It's much easier in Australia where so many places are spread out. Even within one city e.g. Sydney, I have worked in holes.


This is so funny, custard apple! Seriously though, (and to be fair) isn't this the perfect thread for haughty townees?  It would be nice to think of colloquialisms used by country people to qualify big places (note how _pays_ and _campagne_ are one and the same word in English) what we could call la _revanche des campagnards_ in French.


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## lordterrin

I've definitely used _godforsaken_ before... like in "Ugh... I can't wait to get out of this godforsaken town!!"  i think it would convey the same meaning of just.. absolute boredom and nothingness as the other phrases here, but it's definitely still modern enough that I (27 years old) use it, and have for several years...


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## custard apple

lol - FannyB - there are jokes about certain country towns in Australia - but I would not name them, I have friends from those towns.


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## FannyB

lordterrin said:


> I've definitely used _godforsaken_ before... like in "Ugh... I can't wait to get out of this godforsaken town!!" i think it would convey the same meaning of just.. absolute boredom and nothingness as the other phrases here, but it's definitely still modern enough that I (27 years old) use it, and have for several years...


 _bled_ and _godforsaken_ are classics, lordterrin, I agree, but I don't use them often, and I'm older than you! 



> lol - FannyB - there are jokes about certain country towns in Australia - but I would not name them, I have friends from those towns.




Thank you for the placenames, Keith Bradford, it's just that P and T-l-O are so widely used, like national references. Wonder about other French-speaking countries though.


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## Newrone

FannyB said:


> Thank you for the placenames, Keith Bradford, it's just that P and T-l-O are so widely used, like national references.



As is Timbuktu. In fact, I believe Timbuktu was designed and built expressly to serve this purpose ;-).


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## xtrasystole

J'ai remarqué que dans le film _'The French Connection'_ de William Friedkin (1972), la phrase prononcée par Gene Hackman _"Have you ever been to *Poughkeepsie*?"_ est traduite dans la version en français par _"T'as déjà été à *Petaouschnock* ?"_

(D'autre part, je ne sais pas si cela a déjà été dit, mais le mot _'Petaouschnock'_ fait penser au mot _"schnock"_ qui signifie (d'après mon dictionnaire Hachette) un _"fuddy-duddy"_ (mm... I feel like it's an outdated term, isn't it?))


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## wildan1

xtrasystole said:


> _"Have you ever been to *Poughkeepsie*?"_ est traduite dans la version en français par _"T'as déjà été à *Petaouschnock* ?"_


Poughkeepsie (pron. /pu KIP si/ is a lovely old town about 100 km north of New York City--not really a "trou perdu ". The name is of Indian origin, and doesn't really sound that funny to my ear...


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## xtrasystole

Merci wildan1 pour cette précision  

Les traducteurs de 1972 devaient croire que c'était un trou perdu...


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## bloomiegirl

xtrasystole said:


> J'ai remarqué que dans le film _'The French Connection'_ de William Friedkin (1972), la phrase prononcée par Gene Hackman _"Have you ever been to *Poughkeepsie*?"_ est traduite dans la version en français par _"T'as déjà été à *Petaouschnock* ?"_ [...]





wildan1 said:


> Poughkeepsie (pron. /pu KIP si/ is a lovely old town about 100 km north of New York City--not really a "trou perdu ". The name is of Indian origin, and doesn't really sound that funny to my ear...


Not funny to my ears either. The Poughkeepsie connection is probably due to the conflation in "The French Connection" of "Pough town" (for Poughkeepsie) with "Podunk." But Podunk has an older Indian pedigree:
*Podunk* [...] originally the name of a small group of Indians who lived around the Podunk River in Connecticut; the tribe name is in colonial records from 1656 (as Potunck), from southern New England Algonquian (Mohegan or Massachusetts) Potunk [...] Its popularity as the name of a typical (if mythical) U.S. small town dates from a series of witty "Letters from Podunk" which ran in the "Buffalo Daily National Pilot" newspaper beginning Jan. 5, 1846.​



xtrasystole said:


> [...] (D'autre part, je ne sais pas si cela a déjà été dit, mais le mot _'Petaouschnock'_ fait penser au mot _"schnock"_ qui signifie (d'après mon dictionnaire Hachette) un _"fuddy-duddy"_ (mm... I feel like it's an outdated term, isn't it?))


That would be "schnook" [with two _o_'s] which means, basically, a dope or stupid person.

Both terms (Podunk and schnook) are current in Newyorkese.


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## xtrasystole

Merci beaucoup bloomiegirl pour tous ces détails


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