Palookaville

[seb brown]

What or where is Palookaville, or where does the phrase come from? I've hear people say things like "the road to Palookaville". I think it refers to something bad, but am not really sure.

[Quizmonster]

'Palooka' is American slang for a stupid person or a lout, so 'Palookaville' is a name given to the kind of town you'd expect such people to be living in. It's much the same as 'Hicksville', based on 'hick' as a dim, unsophisticated country-dweller.

[thewillow]

See: www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pal1.htm for a more comprehensive explanation.