DCHP-2

brekkie brekky DCHP-2 (July 2016)

• n. — informal, diminutive

  breakfast; the first meal eaten in the morning (see Image 1).

  Type: 5. Frequency — A diminutive and short form of "breakfast". One of the first attested uses in Canada was in a limerick (see the 1929 quotation). However, it appears that the term was not used much beyond the limerick until the early 1980s (see the 1981 quotation). In Australia, brekkie/brekky was frequently used throughout the 1900s (and less frequently in Britain) and suggests that the term is a preservation of the original Australian English term. The term is Canadian only in comparison to the US data, which shows a third of the frequency found in Canada. Canada is a popular destination for Australian and New Zealand young adults, facilitated by Commonwealth employment regulations. Brekkie is most frequently used in Australia (see Chart 1) but has been adopted in informal Canadian English. In Canada, the term is most frequently used in Nova Scotia and Ontario (see Chart 2). In Nova Scotia, it may not be the result of Australian influence, as few Australian go to Nova Scotia. There, it is possibly a dialectological and independent development.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "brekkie", which is marked "Cdn, Brit., & Austral. slang", and OED-3, s.v. "brekkie" (n.).

  • 1929  There was an old spinster named Becky,
    Who was apt as a rule to be pecky,
    She said, "But you know
    I like Shredded Wheat so,
    I take lots every day, for my brekky. 
  • 1981  Brekky is to be served on Main Mall Monday morning by the Home Ec Undergraduate Society. 
  • 1985  The evening, which has been priced at $3,500 per couple (or $4,000 per couple if you insist on sitting ringside), will include a champagne reception, a five-course gourmet dinner, overnight accommodation, champers brekkie in the morning and late check-out privilege to give you all the time you need to sleep off the morning after the night before. 
  • 2008  "One-third of the cars must have been hybrids," the Canadian-sprung Lopes revealed to me during brekkie at the hotel, discussing the car-caravan at the Warner bash, in particular. 
  • 2008  He's thrilled, but can't believe the number of locals who come in for takeout breakfasts of scrambled eggs or one of the 10 omelettes he has on the brekkie menu. 
  • 2013  In a rain-soaked affair, the Bull boys were pipped at the post and had to settle for third and fourth positions on the grid. But the champers and Red Bull cocktails still flowed, and by 2:30 a.m. Sunday everybody that remembered they were there for a race was confident of victory. Others had a more sobered analysis at brekky, a few hours later.