DCHP-2

poutine < Canadian French poutine 'type of pudding' DCHP-2 (February 2017)

• 1 n. — Food

  French fries covered in gravy and topped with cheese curds (see Image 1).

  Type: 1. Origin — Originally, in French, poutine referred to any kind of pudding-like dish (see OED-3, s.v. "poutine"). Poutine, both the the term and the dish of fries, cheese and gravy, came from Quebec to English Canada fairly recently. According to the OED-3 "The dish is said to have been first sold in the ‘Lutin Qui Rit’ restaurant in Warwick, Quebec, in 1957, although the version with gravy was not sold until 1964, and documentary evidence is not found until later. The restaurant's owner, Fernand Lachance (1918–2004), is generally credited with naming the dish". Other places in Quebec also claim the honour. Having crossed the country from Quebec, poutine is now seen as a national fast food (see the 2007 quotation).
  Chart 1 shows that the term, despite gaining international currency, is still most frequent in Canada. Chart 2 shows that it is used in all provinces in mainland Canada, with Newfoundland and the Territories showing insufficient internet data; this does not mean, however, that the dish is not offered in these regions (see, e.g. the 2007 quotation from Newfoundland and the 2016 quotation from the Yukon) only that the phrase the poutine, used to rule out noise, is less common in these domains.
  Its name might be inspired by the traditional Acadian dish "poutine râpée" (English "poutine rape", see the 1956 quotation), a dumpling dish of potatoes and meat, yet there is no further evidence other than the similarity of the name and the general francophone connection (see the 1981 quotation). In Canadian English, poutine refers only to the dish of french fries with gravy and cheese curds. According to Boberg (2012: 497), the term was originally adopted into Quebec French as a borrowing of the English word "pudding".
  See also COD-2, s.v. "poutine", and Gage-5, s.v. "poutine", which are marked "Cdn.", and OED-3, s.v. "poutine", which is marked "Canad.", AHD-5, s.v. "poutine", which is described as "a dish of Québécois origin".

  See also: chip wagon  Nanaimo bar  mechoui (meaning 2)  Montreal bagel  Montreal smoked meat  

• 2 v. — Food

  to turn a regular order of fries into poutine (see meaning 1).

  Type: 1. Origin — Evidence from Canadian publications suggests that the recent conversion from noun (meaning 1) into verb (meaning 2) is increasingly popular.

• 3 adj. — Food, in compounds, e.g. poutined fries

  fries or other foods with added cheese curds and gravy.

  Type: 1. Origin — As a further development from meaning 2, the term has recently also been used adjectivally, which is a direct consequence of meaning 2 via the past participle, a process that has been operative in Germanic languages for many centuries.