DCHP-1 Online

Canada [ Cdn F < Iroquoian kanata village, community]

• • The etymology of Canada is by no means clearly established. During the past three hundred years many solutions to the problem have been offered, most of them fanciful. A few examples follow:

  • 1754  [Quoting an earlier source]. . . . certain "Spaniards having entered the Bay of Chaleurs . . . before the time of Cartier . . . [and finding no gold] often repeated the words Aca nada, that is, here is nothing; which the Indian having since then uttered . . . when they saw any Frenchmen, these latter concluded that Canada was the name of the country."
  • 1760  CANADA, in the Indian language, signifies the Mouth of the country, from Can, Mouth, and Ada, the Country.
  • 1789  . . . some say it was named from Monsieur Cane who early sailed into that river; If so, 0 caprice!
  • 1791  [Quoting Hennepin, 1698] Such a prospect . . . gave them [Spaniards] a very unfavourable opinion of the country . . . [inducing] them to call it Capa di Nada, or Cape Nothing . . . from which . . . it has derived its present name of Canada.
  • 1811  When the French first settled on the banks of the river St. Lawrence, they were stinted by the intendent to a can of spruce beer a day. That people thought this measure very scant, and every moment articulated "can a day." It would be ungenerous in our readers to desire a more rational derivation of the word CANADA.
  • 1861  . . . the erudite author gives Canada as another form of the names Canara, and Carnata. in Southern India. . . . [suggesting] to me the possibility, that a part of the mainland was in like manner called Canada in reference to the part of India that was so named, either because the voyagers took it for a portion of India, or because they fancifully chose to transfer the name to the new continent.
  • 1896  "Kanatats! Kanatats! . . ." "They are strangers" . . . exclaimed the aboriginal inhabitants of what is now Quebec when they caught sight of the first European arrivals in the St. Lawrence; and "Kanata," or "Canada," was thus understood by the new-corners to be the name of the country, and was so applied.
  • 1954  The name Canada, itself, which means "village dwellers," was that of the Huron-Iroquois, who ranged from the lower St. Lawrence to the bottom lands around the Great Lakes.
  • 1960  . . . the Canadian Board of Geographical Names .. . explains that the word "kanata" appeared in the writings of Jacques Cartier in 1534 and referred to the Indian community of Stadacona.
  • 1964  It seems to this writer that, while we are busy on the matter of changing the flag, we ought to do something about changing the name of this country, since Canada is a word derived from a Spanish word meaning gutter. One can see what that implies about the inhabitants.

• 1 n. Hist. See 1615 quote.

  • 1536  (1924)  [. . . nous les avions prins le premier voyage a Can[a]da. . . . (. . . we had seized them when on our first voyage to Canada. . . .)]
  • 1615  (1890-1901)  Canada . . . is not, properly speaking, all this extent of country which they now call New France; but it is only that part, which extends along the banks of the great River Canada [The St. Lawrence River] and the Gulf of St. Lawrence
  • 1708  Another part of this Tract, is called Canada from the River of that Name that Waters it. . . .
  • 1881  In Canada the King and his officers exercised much greater power even than in France.

• 2a n. Hist. after 1759, the British province encompassing what was formerly French Canada.

  • 1769  (1931)  . . . in Canada, contrary to what we see every where else, the country is rich, the capital poor. . . .
  • 1787  A priest of the Romish communion comes annually from Canada, to baptize, confess, and absolve [the Abenaki].

• 2b n. the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada [1791-1841 ].

  • 1793  (1801)  We mixed up some vermillion in melted grease, and inscribed . . . "Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three."
  • 1905  Canada, in the strict sense of the word, consists of the ancient Province of Quebec, which, in 1791, was divided into the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada

• 3 n. the Province of Canada, a union of Upper and Lower Canada known as Canada West and Canada East respectively [1841-1867].

  • 1888  Within a hundred years . . . Canada, if true to herself, will have a population of 50,000,000 . . . and be the greatest nation on this continent.
  • 1953  This led to the union of . . . Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada (Quebec and Ontario) In 1867. . .

• 4 n. after 1867, the confederated provinces of old Canada and the Maritimes, with the later addition of the newly created provinces of the west, of Prince Edward Island, and, in 1949, of Newfoundland.

  • 1869  (1962)  Said I, I come from Canada / So you can't come over me.
  • 1966  In this situation (and we see it around us in Canada, as well) the people appointed or elected to lead do not lead. . . .

• 5 n. in Newfoundland, the mainland of Canada.

  • Although Newfoundland has been a province of Canada since 1949, many older Newfoundlanders continue to call the mainland Canada, as they did prior to Confederation.

  • 1957  "Why, sure the young lads go to Canada or the States."

• 6 n. a kind of large gray goose, Branta canadensis, with a black head and neck and white cheek patches.

  See also: Canada goose  

  • 1955  Then it was mostly drakes you saw, or Canadas that had lost their mates.
  • 1963  There's been a great migration of Canadas through the Lower Mainland the past 10 days. . . .