Sad to not see "dart" in there, I assumed from Letterkenny that it was a regular Canadianism. Perhaps it's too new?
Popularized by Trailer Park Boys in the 2000s, if not well before
Another Trailer Park Boys classic: "That's the way she goes"
A Typology of Canadianisms
121–130 of 345 posts
Re: A Typology of Canadianisms
#122Discussions of healthcare facilities always get me in Canada. Grew up in the states, but born in Canada, when you have to use the emergency room it’s said that “they went to Hospital” as opposed to “they went to ‘the’ hospital”. No one up here ever seems to see the oddity of always referring to multiple different hospitals as the singular Hospital.
In America you do something similar with school. I went to school (not “the school”).
Also varies by region in the US for referring to highways. In Southern California it is usually "the I-5" while on the other coast you will hear a plain "I-95".
Re: A Typology of Canadianisms
#123as someone who learned continental french, when i visited quebec i saw "melon d'eau" and i nearly lost it.
That's the first gloss DeepL gives me for it. I've never before in my life heard "pastèque" and I doubt I'll remember it.
Re: A Typology of Canadianisms
#124Love to see Skookum in there.
Re: A Typology of Canadianisms
#125As a Canadian who married an American and now lived in the US, I was surprised how many things I say are Canadianisms without me having realized. There have been a lot of (minor) miscommunications because I didn't realize I was saying something only Canadians understand. Like when I told her that my parents' hydro had been out all day.
> Like when I told her that my parents' hydro had been out all day.
When I immigrated to Canada (Ontario) a decade ago, the term hydro was the most confusing to me. I assumed it meant water supply or plumbing, but it was always in the wrong context. I imagined the disaster of hooking up the plumbing to the electrical service! Now it’s completely natural to call it “hydro” but confusing at first.
Re: A Typology of Canadianisms
#126title? this is a full Dictionary of Canadianisms, words included according to a six facet typology. i.e. the typology is not the main story.
Type 1 – Origin: a form and its meaning were created in what is now Canada
Type 2 – Preservation: a form or meaning that was once widespread in many Englishes, but is now preserved in Canadian English in the North American context or beyond; sometimes called “retention”
Type 3 – Semantic Change: forms that have undergone semantic change in Canadian English
Type 4 – Culturally Significant: forms or meanings that have been enshrined in the Canadian psyche and are widely seen as part of Canadian identity
Type 5 – Frequency: forms or meanings that are Canadian by virtue of frequency
Type 6 – Memorial: forms or meanings now widely considered to be pejorative
Non-Canadian: forms or meanings once thought to be Canadian for which evidence is lacking
Re: A Typology of Canadianisms
#127Take off, eh!
It's missing.
Re: A Typology of Canadianisms
#128Surprising one for me was "all dressed" as a term for, e.g., a pizza with all the toppings. Apparently it's a direct translation from French and is pretty exclusive to Quebec English and the Easternmost part of Ontario (which is heavily French). And Saskatchewan. Which the site notes is "a bit of a mystery". Also found "parkade" interesting--apparently it's still much more heavily used in Western Canada, and they att…
> Surprising one for me was "all dressed" as a term for, e.g., a pizza with all the toppings.
What on Earth. Wikipedia tells me:
> An all-dressed chip called The Whole Shabang is produced by American prison supplier Keefe Group. It became available to the general public in 2016.[4] Frito-Lay began selling all-dressed Ruffles potato chips in the United States that same year.[5]
I had assumed the entire time that everyone uses this term for potato chips (and that everyone has the flavour) and that the Quebecois were just being weird by also applying it to pizza.
--
"Renoviction" is a very recent neologism that's mainly used in the specific major cities where it's an issue (because of the housing market).
"Gong show" I think is relatively old-fashioned (as in Gen X) by comparison. I'm actually surprised Americans don't say that, given that the actual show was on NBC.
I can easily find "kerfuffle" in supposedly American online dictionaries so I think their claim is rather dubious. On the flip side, I've never in my life heard "off-sale"; and in Ontario it's only quite recently (https://www.ontario.ca/document/alcohol-master-framework-agr...; https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1003988/ontario-consumers...) that you can even legally purchase beer and wine at a grocery store.
Re: A Typology of Canadianisms
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
A “fully dressed” poboy in New Orleans is one with all the fixing’s
Huh, that makes sense given "all dressed" came from French and New Orleans' French history. I'm not sure why we both ended up with "dressed" given the French is literally "all garnishes / toppings" or "wholly garnished / topped". I'm sure some linguist could probably do a dissertation on this or something. And hopefully also cover how Saskatchewan ended up with using "all dressed" because I'm really curious about tha…
> I'm not sure why we both ended up with "dressed" given the French is literally "all garnishes / toppings" or "wholly garnished / topped".
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dress
> 4. (also figuratively) To adorn or ornament (something). [from 15th c.]
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/garnish
> 1. To decorate with ornaments; to adorn; to embellish.
(Bonus: "garnish" is etymologically related to "warn". There are many such other pairs in English, e.g. "guarantee" / "warranty" and "guard" / "ward". (As I understand it: the Gauls could pronounce the "g", but the Franks couldn't.)
Re: A Typology of Canadianisms
#130I wish they would've explained the term "soaker" a bit better as it's such a Canadian thing. Basically, when the snow starts to melt in the spring, you'll sometimes accidentally step on some thin ice that leads directly to a puddle underneath and soak your boot. It sucks! Also, we would often call these "booters" in Manitoba, where I'm from.
I can relate to the experience, but never even thought of having a word for it...