DCHP-1 Online

Bluenose [see note below]

• • The origin of the term Bluenose is uncertain, as shown by the following quotation:

  • 1942  As for the nickname Bluenose itself, the last person to tell you why he is so called is a Nova Scotian.
    Some insist that it comes from the kind of potatoes grown in the province, shaped like a human proboscis and unmistakenly blue at the tip.
    Others believe it to be an outgrowth of the fishing trade, and the naturally resulting color of the noses of fishermen from the North Atlantic winds.
    Sir Charles G. D. Roberts . . . claims that a famous Nova Scotia privateer in the War of 1812 had a cannon in her bow which was painted bright blue. She made a great deal of money for the province by intercepting United States vessels, and she was called the "blue nose" by those who had occasion to keep out of her way. So the name became associated in the United States with Nova Scotians.

• 1a n. Hist. a Nova Scotian residing in that province before the American Revolution and the subsequent arrival of the Loyalists.

  • 1785  (1902)  The Blue-noses, to use a vulgar appelation, who had address sufficient to divide the Loyalists, exerted themselves to the utmost of their power and cunning.
  • 1898  The soubriquet "Bluenose" . . . originated with the Loyalists of Annapolis county, who applied it to the pre-loyalist settlers as a term of "derision" during the bitter struggle to pre-eminence in public affairs between these two sections of the population in the provincial election of 1785.

• 1b n. any Nova Scotian (the usual modern sense).

  • 1825  During the course of the past week I had employed . . . a long blue nose to do the odd jobs.
  • 1959  [There were] no fights except among the Irish and "Bluenoses" who fight just anywhere.

• 1c n. a New Brunswicker.

  • 1845  Of the other original settlers [in New Brunswick], or, as they are particularly termed, "blue noses," they are composed of the refugees and their descendents. . . .
  • 1863  (1962)  To call a New Brunswicker a "Bluenose," he appears neither to feel insulted nor a step lowered in dignity.
  • 1957  "Break out the hook !" --the first bark of a Bluenose mate [a New Brunswicker] drifted from the water to the shore.

• 2a n. a ship built in Nova Scotia, specifically a sailing schooner.

  • 1908  At the age of eighteen I "signed on" as an ordinary seaman on the full-rigged ship Celestial Burrel, 1,800 tons register, at the port of Cardiff. She was a Nova-Scotian, or "a blue nose," as they are oft-times called.
  • 1957  Twenty Bluenose ships were in harbor in Liverpool. . . .

• 2b n. See 1949 quote.

  • 1949  In those old days all the ships of the Maritime Provinces were known among sailors the world over as Bluenoses.
  • 1957  In great, relishing gulps, the Bluenose timber drogher [of Saint John, N.B.] was eating up the last of her 14,000 miles to Melbourne.

• 2c n. a class of sailboat.

  • 1962  This event is for Bluenose class boats.

• 3 n. a variety of potato having a bluish tip.

  See also: bluenose potato  

  • 1843  Pray Sir . . . can you tell me why the Nova Scotians are called "Blue-noses"? It is the name of a potato . . . which they produce in great perfection.
  • 1863  (1962)  Some have said, that the people received [the name] from their remarkable tenacity to a species of potato, known by the name of "blue-nose". . . .