DCHP-1

Canadian ((adj.))

1a adj. Hist. of or having to do with French Canadians; French-Canadian.
- 1760 Their revenue is besides so small, and the portions they receive with the young Canadian ladies so inconsiderable, that the first time their house was burnt, they were upon the point of being sent back to France.
- 1924 (1933) . . . her mother had always spoken highly of the courtesy and good manners of the Canadian children.
1b adj. denoting articles of various kinds associated with or originating among French Canadians.
- 1795 (1911) The Canadian coats, with capots and sashes, look very picturesque.
- 1942 the bell-cast roofs of the larger houses . . . are allied to the Canadian barn-roof, but hipped at more sharply contrasting angles.
1c adj. of or relating to Canadian cattle.
See also: Canadian cattle
- 1764 Strayed from His Excellency General Murray's Farm . . . Two Canadian Bullocks. . . .
- 1842 The young cattle (both Bulls and Heifers) fully demonstrated the great benefit which breeders may derive from putting their Canadian Cows to short horned Bulls.
- 1897 Canadian Cows are small but hardy and good milkers. . . .
2a adj. of, situated in, or characteristic of Canada or of her people.
- 1769 (1931) I am going to attend a very handsome French lady, who allows me the honor to drive her en calache to our Canadian Hyde Park. . . .
- 1964 The fact that one-third of the Canadian population is French-speaking greatly contributes to Canada's identity. . . .
2b adj. denoting a native, resident, or citizen of Canada; in older use, with reference to Upper Canada especially.
- 1840 (1951) . . . George Thorn a Canadian servant [of the H.B.C.], occupied one boat. . . .
- 1899 (1908) . . . if one heard bad language at all it was from the lips of some Yankee or Canadian teamster. . . .
- 1964 I am afraid that Canadian adults . . . have their attitudes on the Quebec question pretty well fixed.
3 adj. possessed of a sense of loyalty towards Canada and of identification with other Canadians.
- 1809
  Should e'er fierce War's red torrents flow,
  And tinge with blood our fertile plains,
  With joy Canadian hearts would glow
  That dauntless still would be our swains.
- 1862 Shall we become a united people, truly Canadian in principle, in thought and in action, or shall we remain as we are, a weak and disjointed colony, each and every one of us, adhering to the national names and prejudices of the country from which we sprang?
- 1883 We are Canadian enough in our views to look at Dominion matters from the Federal rather than the Provincial standpoint, though in matters of local self-government we shall be as jealous of Provincial rights as we are of Federal rights.
4a adj. characteristic of the French spoken in Canada.
- 1824 (1931) The land is low inside this Shoal and covered with high Grass and Willows which gives it the appearance of an extended Marsh or Swamp (in fact it is so or more properly speaking a quag mire or according to the Canadian phraselogy a Ventre de Boeuf as the Weight and Motion of a person Walking thereon shakes it for a considerable distance).
- 1887 Already some of our best Canadian words, such as char-dortoir instead of wagon-lit for "sleeping car" have found their way into that paragon of pocket manuals, Bellows' French and English Dictionary
4b adj. characteristic of the English spoken in Canada.
- 1832 Two horses abreast, called in Canadian phraseology a span of horses, will travel from forty to fifty miles a day.
- 1958 He's six feet tall and speaks with a snipped Oxford accent, pronouncing "clerk" as "clark" but, oddly, discarding the characteristic "rawtha" for the Canadian "rather."
5 adj. Fur Trade, Hist. of or associated with the Montreal traders.
See also: Canadian ((n.)) (def. 3)
- 1820 (1963) I found they had among them eleven Canadian nets, seven Canadian guns . . . and all powder and shot they had were Canadian goods. . . . They . . . traded those articles with the Canadian Indians.

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