DCHP-1 Online

porkeater [trans. of Cdn F mangeur de lard]

• 1a n. Fur Trade, Slang, Derog., Hist. in early use, an engagé of the North West Company who signed on to man the canoes plying between Montreal and the Grand Portage, so called because pork was the staple of their diet, as opposed to the pemmican and coarser foods endured by winterers and others who ventured into the interior.

  See also: engagé  mangeur de lard (def. 1)  Montreal canoeman  comers and goers  grand voyageur  

  • The term (def. la) originated with the North West Company, later senses developing after the merger with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821.

  • 1793  (1933)  Between two and three hundred yards to the East of the N.W. Fort beyond the Pork eaters camp is the spot Mess^rs David and Peter Grant have selected to build upon. . . .
  • 1821  (1918)  Mr. K. recommends . . . the absolute necessity of forwarding 7 or 8 Canoes of pork eaters [and] Winterers . . . with full ladings.
  • 1956  In 1767 wages of "porkeaters" (men who were hired for the trip from Montreal to Grand Portage and return) were roughly 350 livres for a guide, 300 to 320 for foremen and steersmen and 240 livres for middlemen.

• 1b n. Fur Trade, Slang, Derog., Hist. See 1961 quote.

  See also: mangeur de lard (def. 2)  

  • 1820  (1823)  There is a pride amongst 'Old Voyagers', which makes them consider being frost-bitten as effeminate, and only excusable in a "Pork-eater," or one newly come into the country.
  • 1844  (1955)  It is the young hands "porkeaters" that they persecute the worst.
  • 1961  Voyageurs were of two classes: a beginner was called a "pork-eater"; an experienced man who spent the cold months at an interior post was called a "winterer."

• 1c n. any canoeman or boatman.

  See also: voyageur (def. 1)  

  • 1829  (1948)  By this opportunity I send you all you requested . . . and four Pork eaters.
  • 1831  (1947)  . . . sixteen men drowned in this river . . . six of Mr. Harriot's pork eaters and one belonging to [Ft. Colville].
  • 1859  The men who usually work this brigade of [H.B.C.] canoes are hired at Lachine, and are called by the uncouth names of majngeurs du lard, or pork-eaters. . . .

• 2 n. Hist. a volunteer for the force raised in Lower Canada to oppose the Patriotes during the Rebellion of 1837-8.

  See also: Patriote  

  • 1873  The first paid corps raised, consisted of laborers, mechanics and tradesmen, chiefly Irish, and were called the Porkeaters, forming a regiment of about 600 strong; able, resolute fellows, who, on being equipped, at first presented a motley, awkward squad.