DCHP-2

Canuck Kanuck, kanaka, kanacka, Cannuck, Canuc While originating in informal contexts (see DCHP-1, OED-3, s.v. "Canuck", which labels the term "colloq".), only some meanings can be considered informal today. DCHP-2 (August 2022)

• 1a † n. & adj. — Ethnicities, slang, derogatory, historical

  a Hawaiian or Polynesian in North America.

  While originally deemed of uncertain origin (see DCHP-1, s.v. "Canuck"), work by Mathews (1975) and Adler (1975) offers a transmission scenario that is highly plausible. The term Canuck almost certainly derives from Hawaiian kanaka 'man' (Mathews 1975: 160, Sledd 1978: 176) and was transferred to multiple groups starting around 1800. The first group that the term was applied to were Polynesian sailors, who sailed on North American whaling ships and referred to themselves as kanakas 'men', which the North American sailors used as their name for the Polynesians. The quotations under Kanaka, originally a DCHP-1 entry, predate other meanings of Canuck and support this explanation.
  From there, kanak(a) was expanded to other groups, originally triggered by a discriminatory and racist motivation (Adler 1975: 159) (see meanings 1b, 2a, 2b). While the term's history is complex and not yet fully understood, the overall transmission path emerges quite clearly (cf. DCHP-1 Canuck ((n.)) (fistnotes) for previous theories).

  See also: Kanaka  

  • Polynesians either settled early in British Columbia and the American Pacific Northwest, or arrived in the East on whaling ships, planting the term in the early 1800s on both sides of the continent with different meanings, i.e. transferring to other foreigners in the East (see meaning 1b), while remaining tied to Polynesians longer in the West.

  • 1829-1832  (1948)  [[...] and that [was] again corroborated by the deceased calling out to the Kanackas to fire on the Canadians.]
  • 1867  There were also a number of old slab buildings connected together, and called Kanaka Town. 
  • 1868  "[...]On the 20th, Kanaka William's house was burnt, and on the 26th the stable and cow house were pulled down by them.[...]" 
  • 1877  They rode astride their horses, like the Kanaka girls of the Sandwich islands [...]. 
  • 1883  There are a few Hawaiian words introduced by the Kanaka sailors on the whaleships, which are universally employed between the whites and Eskimo on the whole of the Arctic coast, and occasionally among the Eskimo themselves. 
  • 1885  Violets, or, Jasper Luckings, the Kanuck Landlord and California Gardner; A tragic-comedy by Abel Yates 
  • 1892  Soon as you hear him, whose pillow is watered Over the soul of the savage Kanak,[...] 

• 1b † n. — Ethnicities, historical

  a foreigner in North America.

  Adler (1975) suggests that perceived darker skin colour was the connection and reason for generalization from meaning 1a to other groups:
  
  "Canuck is given in many standard sources as designating, in Canada, a French-Canadian. Why not a British-Canadian? Could it be (if we assume a connection with kanaka) because skin of the French-Canadian was somewhat darker, more so because of intermarriage with American Indians? Sailors who had been in the Pacific might have applied the term kanaka to darker French-Canadians in Canadian or northwest American or New England ports." (Adler 1975: 159)
  
  The 1835 quotation offers evidence for this argument for New Englanders, who were commonly called by their 19th-century nickname "Johnathan", a point that is made in Mathews (1975: 160). Sledd offers evidence from historical travel reports in which a group of Canadian boatmen was described as "dark as Indians" (1978: 194 fn 11) and of kanakas as "the copper-colored islanders". So it appears that the term was generalized to refer to foreigners more generally, such as the French-Canadian, German and Dutch speakers, who were among the most numerous in 1830s North America. The French (canaque and German languages (der Kanake), have the same meanings, as do other languages, with German acknowledging the South Seas connection with two meanings: "Polynesisan" and as a "coarse term of abuse for foreigners" (ÖWB-42, s.v. "Kanake"). European racism seems to have been the driving force for the dissemination of this meaning, which underwent amelioration in Canada with a dozen years of the 1835 quotation (see meaning 2b).

  • DARE, s.v. "Canuck", lists the 1835 quotation also as the earliest American attestation and suggests its transition from Hawaiian kanaka into English via "perhaps" Canadian French canaque. The earliest French quotation we were able to find dates from 1866 (Larousse Etymologique 2005, s.v. "canaque"), which is rather late. Our interpretation, see above, would render the transfer from English into Canadian French more likely. Note: The DARE map shows its predominant use in the North-Eastern US, Northern Midwest and Washington State and Oregon.

  • 1835  (1835)  [Taking possession, after purchase, is called, in the phraseology of the country, drawing your land. The quantity of land described as located in favor of U.E. loyalists, is 1,664,600 acres, and for militia claimants 504,100 acres. Canadians are somewhat jealous of Americans? that they are secretly manoeuvering, not exactly with the inoffensive good humor of a much respected yeoman of England, in whose sequestered dwelling I some time resided [?]. Johnathan distinguishes a Dutch or French Canadian, by the term Kanuck.]

• 2a n. — Ethnicities, slang, derogatory, rare

  a French Canadian.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — From meaning 1b, the connection with Francophone Lower Canada was only a question of time: "Since these two groups [Francophones and German speakers] concentrated north of the border the association with Canada came into play as a consequence of the more multilingual nature of early Upper and Lower Canada" (Dollinger 2016a: 17). The meaning "foreigner" is not necessarily a Canadianism, although when it refers to French Canadians alone, it probably is (see below, 2a). Some evidence suggests that this cover-all term for "foreigners" was originally an early American innovation, as the symbolic name "Johnathan" for an American in the 1835 quotation suggests). The association of Canuck with French Canadians is older than its other Canadian meanings (see meanings 2b & 3), dating back to 1746 (see 'Canadian' cross-reference below). In the early 20th century both meanings, 2a and 2b, were common, while today the meaning 2a is comparatively rare (see the 2016 quotation).

  See also: Canadian ((n.))  peasouper  two solitudes  

  • 1866  "I want none of your d--- peasoup excuses, or promises," and, calling upon the hostler, a fat-blooded Englishman, he ordered him to stable the horses immediately, and keep a sharp "look out" to that Canuck Frenchman. 
  • 1889  But for pure and unadulterated brag I will back the lower class Canuck against the world.
  • 1898  A Tory in Seth's shoes, and him red-hot for liberty. He's got a Canuck a-workin' for him, and I'd livser trust a wolf 'n one o' them pea-soupers. 
  • 1898  The people of that town are all English, and speak only their own tongue; and it is all strange to these men, who are called "Canuck and "Frenchy." 
  • 1900  I would very much like to know the origin of the expression Canuck applied to the French Canadians.
  • 1912  (1913)  On the face of the swarthy Canuck guide who sat in the stern there was a weary contempt.
  • 1924  He had once heard Skinny Wiggins boasting to Mark Laval, “Aw, you dirty Canuck, my father can do your father, one hand tied behind his back!”
  • 2016  In La Vie est d’Hommage, he writes, “I am French Canadian. When I am angry, I often swear in French; when I dream, I often dream in French.”* He went on to say that “all my knowledge comes from my being French Canadian.” But as a Canuck in the United States, he felt patronized. He needed to hide his true self. Even with his friends in New York, with Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, he was “a completely different man. We have to live in English, it’s impossible to live in French. This is the secret thought of the Canuck in America.” Kerouac submerged his identity, despite the fact that he thought the French Canadian language was “the most powerful in the world.” He felt obliged to pass as American. 

• 2b n. — Ethnicities

  an Anglophone Canadian.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — The 1849 quotation is the earliest unambiguous reference to an Anglophone Canadian. Avis (1983: 5) identifies its setting as New Brunswick and the speaker as English-speaking.

  • Avis (1983: 5) states that the term Canuck "has been well established in Canada [...] for more than a century. It has no pejorative connotations among Canadians, quite to the contrary. And it is probably used widely among English speakers with reference to all Canadians."

  • 1849  We saw a few partridges: we also met a lusty fellow in a forest road with a keg of whisky slung around him, who called to us 'Come boys and have some grog, I'm what you call a canuck:' a (Canadian). 
  • 1852  WHAT THE YANKEES DO. Our readers will find below some notes from the memorandum-book of a very shrewd American friend who had made a pretty extensive tour through the Province, within the last few weeks. We have no doubt that his facts are perfectly correct, and that his speculating countrymen have turned a pretty penny by recent transactions with the Canucks. 
  • 1878  "Because I was not born in any but a state of sin and misery. I am a Canuck. But," said he dropping into a rich brogue, "Shure I was rared in Oirland." 
  • 1878  The home of the "Canuck," the "Habitent," the "Metis," and the "Indian," proved to be a land whose educational exhibit was confessedly superior to anything of the kind in the great collection. 
  • 1900  11219. WHEN JOHNNY CANUCK COMES HOME. Words and music by H.H. Godfrey, Toronto, Ont., 12th March, 1900. 
  • 1908  The Toronto Globe has a cartoon wherein Jack Canuck is walking arm in arm with Laurier and saying, "I like to walk with a man who can set the pace for me."

• 3 n. — Ethnicities, informal

  a native or citizen of Canada.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — While the term has undergone semantic amelioration very quickly in Canadian English (see the earliest Canadian quotation from 1849 in meaning 2b), some negative undertones remained in select contexts, e.g. the 1861 or 1931 quotations. These are, however, intermingled early with non-derogatory, though informal uses of the term, e.g. the 1871 quotation. As Chart 1 shows, the term is most frequent in Canada today in non-Sports contexts, which underlines the positive connotations associated with the term in Canada.

  See also: Jack Canuck  Johnny Canuck (def. 1a)  true north  

  • In spite of the definition given in many dictionaries still, the term Canuck as applied by Canadians to themselves is not at all derogatory, quite the contrary. Nor is the term, in modern use, especially associated with French Canadians; again, quite the contrary.
  • We have found no evidence that bears out the speculation in the 1963 quotation.

  • 1849  On the subject of annexation Mr Cameron said; "[...] Can it be that there is a Canadian, or Anglo-Canadian, or an American-Canadian of as mean a soul, with a spirit so dead to patriotism, that he would be willing to forego the honour of his country -- the glory of being a Canadian -- for the position of a mere state, with the soubriquet of "Canucks," as we hear of Pukes and Hoosiers, Wolverines and Corncrackers? No; he (Mr. Cameron) was a Canadian, proud of the name, and hoped to see his native land prospering side by side with the United States, and having nothing either to covet or envy." 
  • 1861  I must add that it is somewhat supported . . . by the analogy of another term, namely Canuc, which is used vulgarly and rather contemptuously for Canadian, and which seems to me to come from Canuchsa, the word employed by the Iroquois to denote a "hut." Here Canadian would mean a "townsman" or "villager," but a canuc would be only a "hutter."
  • 1871  It is difficult to carry out this important point in a newspaper argument or outside of the force; but I am proud to say that in the volunteer force, where "Fossil Tory" and "Clear Grit" elbow each other, I have never heard the question of politics raised, or the condition of party discussed, where the interests of the force were concerned. While I respect the "Kanuck's" undoubted military attainments, I decidedly object to his manner of handling the subject. 
  • 1883  "Twenty years ago I was a policeman in Buffalo, and Bill, here was down on his luck, and doing nothing, so he used to go along with me. One day I found a Canuck sleeping behind a lumber pile, and started to run him in. He was a greenhorn, and when I gave him the 'collar' was about frightened out of his boots. He began to beg to be let off, and finally said that if I let him go he would enlist. They were paying $500 for subs at that time, so I turned the fellow over to Bill, and he rushed him in. That was making $250 apiece pretty easy, so Bill and I concluded to go into the business." 
  • 1891  I see now, however, that I made a mistake in not working harder. I ought to have organized bureaus and induced every "Canuck" in the Western States to have gone and voted against Sir John Macdonald. 
  • 1900  JACK CANUCK (to the "Little Englander"): [...]. [caption for an illustration]
  • 1900  Drury, the crack Canadian skater, is entered already, and A.E Pitkie, another fast Canuck, will be among the contestants.
  • 1907  "And don't you want to be Americans any longer?" I asked. "No," said they most emphatically, "we're Canucks now."
  • 1925  733 FORMER CANUCKS RETURN FROM STATES [...] Seven hundred and thirty-three former Canadians who have lived in the United States more than six months, returned to Canada in the first nine days of October, to make their permanent home here, according to statistics compiled by the department of immigration and colonization. 
  • 1931  THE SONG OF A BLOODY CANUCK 2nd verse: But if I came from Canada And wrote with Shakespeare’s luck, The literary lights would say: “This bounder’s a Canuck.”
  • 1947  We Canucks—it was still in the age when Canadians were commonly called Canucks—didn’t plow, plant or reap like they did “over ‘ome”.
  • 1963  What is the origin of the nickname Jack Canuck? It probably comes from the name Connaught, the nickname given more than 100 years ago by French Canadians to Canadians of Irish origin.
  • 1964  The Scottish skip missed a wide open takeout in the fifth leaving the Canucks another single.
  • 1975  That was in ’29. By ’33, Lucius was older, even cannier, a Canadian artist in crime, the Canuck with a thousand faces.
  • 1977  Canuck Three cheers for Johnny Canuck! (How Do You Feel About Canuck? Agree With Trudeau?-Feb 26). I agree with our Prime Minister that Canuck can be and sometimes is used in a derogatory sense. It is also used, without any derogatory overtones, to refer simply to a Canadian. We should elevate this word to a high peak of respectability. Johnny Canuck was a great comic book hero during the Second World War. We should revive him and send him off on a series of modern-day exploits to give ourselves and our country a new folk hero. And while we’re at it, let’s add a new word to the English language: Canuckophile. If you open your dictionary, you can find Anglophile, Francophile, and Russophile for people who love England or France or Russia. If you love Canada (and you don’t even have to be a Canadian to do that), you can now call yourself a Canuckophile. The time is ripe for launching this new word, especially since a question mark now hangs over the future of this great country.
  • 2005  While Americans would like to call George Canyon their own, he's a real Canuck, writes Adrian Chamberlain. If you're searching for the next Great American Cowboy, George Canyon just may be him. The irony, of course, is that the country singer hails from Pictou County, N.S. 
  • 2016  "These Syrians, we don't want to label them Syrians, or Mexicans -- they are Canadians; we are Canucks. We live in Canada, and we're Canadians." 

• 4 adj. — originally informal, now common core

  pertaining to Canada.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — In the last third of the 1800s, the term began to be used as an adjective to relate to Canada as a country. Since then the contexts have been expanded to any and all domains.

  See also: Canadiana (meaning 1)  Canuckiana  

  • 1859  [on a fight a the circus] We do not know which whipped, if either, but we presume, of course, that the Rochester man was trained by practice at home, and had the advantage over his Canuck antagonist. The police interfered, and carried the combatants before Justice Tidwell, who fined Rochester twenty-five dollars and Canada ten dollars. 
  • 1879  It is well known that Canada, by the adoption of a protective tariff, shut out many of our American articles from the Canuck markets.
  • 1887  
    "Who'll buy my caller herrin'?
    Cod, turbot, ling, delicious herrin',
    Buy my caller herrin',
    They're every one Kanucks!"
  • 1887  The exhibit of poultry and pigeons at the English Dairy Show, just over, was by all odds the best and largest exhibition they have ever had. The grand total of entries footed up to 3,205 ("Kanuck" secretaries, smack your lips!) viz., poultry, 1,503; pigeons, 1,642; this shows an increase over last year of some 600 entries.
  • 1888  
    O! Landsdowne! when you're roaming round
    Old India's coral strand,
    Where elephants and snakes abound
    Throughout the torrid land,
    Your memory may wander back
    To your Cannuck connection,
    And the thought of an old toboggan track
    Will be a cool reflection.
  • 1904  We start the prices at $3.00 for a well-made suit of good "Canuck" tweed--[...].
  • 1940  Mixed with the cheerful youngsters aboard the luxury ships were many adults -- Britishers, home returning Canadians, invalided Canucks of the First and Second Divisions,[...].
  • 1963  Any trend by the big brother to the south to tell Canadians how to run their affairs can raise Canuck dander very quickly.
  • 1979  Let’s stand firm against these Canuck McCarthys.
  • 2007  Strong Canuck buck puts manufacturers at risk; What's good for consumers, not so good for producers [headline] 
  • 2010  The plaster wall board (gyprock in Canuck lingo) is typically affixed to 2x4" vertical boards, which are 16" apart - measured centre to centre. If you use wall mount, you'd want to drill through the plaster and affix to the lumber directly... preferably on a weight-bearing wall. 
  • 2016  Walker thinks a wall is necessary to plug holes in Canada's porous border security system. Terrorists could easily cross over into the U.S. from what, according to Walker, is a Canuck breeding pool for jihadists. So clearly my reason for supporting a wall would be different from Walker's but our goal is the same; to minimize traffic between our two countries. 

• 5 n. & adj. — Hockey

  the Vancouver NHL hockey team.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — In 1945 a Vancouver hockey team by the name of Canucks was formed. It was admitted to the NHL in 1970. This meaning is today the most frequent use of the form.

  • 1955  Another player has been added to the Vancouver Canuck's hockey club in the person of the fabulous Wild Bill Ezinicki of former Toronto Maple Leaf fame. 
  • 1970  Vancouver Canucks will retain their name when they join the National Hockey League next season, said Tom Scallen, head of the new owners, the Medicor group of Minneapolis. . . . His assistant in Medicor, Lyman Walters, sparked [a] poll by suggesting Canucks is "an outdated slang expression."
  • 1989  That's why Dallas may be third. Hamilton, you say? Great building, although they lack luxury boxes -- the biggest money-maker for an owner. Just an outside chance for them . . . Speaking of buildings, the Vancouver Canucks' owners have commissioned a study on a new rink when their lease expires at Pacific Coliseum in 1994. They want an increased seating capacity (it's only 16,553 currently). They'd also like some money from concessions and parking, something they don't get at the PNE. 
  • 2011  The Canucks again did not do themselves any favours, however, backing up into a corner to protect a one-goal lead in regulation. There is no way this team with all its talent should ever be compared to the 2007 version, with all the plumbers. The Canucks scored first, a shorthanded Alex Burrows goal two minutes into the second. 
  • 2016  The Vancouver Canucks' $36-million man, Loui Eriksson - 30-goal scorer, first-line National Hockey League winger, offensive saviour, natural sidekick to Daniel and Henrik Sedin - is not a shooter. What he has mainly lacked so far as a Canuck, besides a goal for his team, are shots. 

• 6a n. — rare, historical

  Canadian French.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — In connection with meaning 2a, the oldest of the Canadian-specific meanings, the extension from Francophone people to the French language is evident in the 1866 quotation.
  See also OED-3, s.v. "Canuck", A.3, for non-Canadian evidence.

  • 1866  "Oh, monsieur, monsieur, ayez pitie de moi; je suis honnète et vous paierai dix fois autant." "You blasted scoundrel that you are, I want none of your impertinence and Canuck lingo; go hunt up your dirty trash of hungry humbugs, that you shouldered upon me last evening. 

• 6b n. — informal, slang

  Canadian English.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — In analogy probably to the use of "American" to refer to a language, Canuck has occasionally been used in this specialized sense.

  See also: Canadian English  

  • 1901  "It is one ver' gran' night," I said in my dialect of rude Canuck; for I did not wish him, or any one, to know me. War is war, but, surely, such adventures are not the thing for a woman. 
  • 2005  If you want to learn how to speak Canuck, this is the best way to do it. Plus it's good, decent news coverage that doesn't work as an arm of the State. My friends in Michigan watch only Canadian news now - they feel they only get half the story from CNN (aka White House News Corp, as they call it). PS The short "o" is indeed the biggest obstacle to speaking Canuck, although you're from NY, so you might be okay in getting it down. If you say it "hackey" you give yourself away ... go for something closer to "hawkey" keeping the "aw" short in speech and you've got it. 
  • 2009  
    Speaking Canuck
    It's been more than 40 years since the Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles was officially updated. A small team of language experts and students at the University of British Columbia is working on a new scholarly collection of words particular to the Canadian tongue. 
  • 2009  S/he thinks I'm "ignorant and arrogant" when I say that unionized workers do not get on their knees, kiss their bosses' arse (that's Canuck for "ass", slaman) and beg to keep their job at all costs. Workers lose jobs and find other jobs - a revolutionary concept, slaman, but we here in Canada are a little more radical that way. Come and visit, it ain't all that bad. 
  • 2011  The difference between a Canuck and an Englishman doesn't seem too much but when it comes to voice controlled things like phones the difference is dramatic. I'm English living here and find all the automated voice system have a terrible time with my accent until I pretend to speak Canuck. 

• 7 usually Crazy Canuck — Sports, originally derogatory

  a member of the Canadian alpine ski team.

  Type: 3. Semantic Change — In the 1970s, Canadian skiers started to take part on the European downhill World Cup circuit. Their improvised material and daring attitude quickly gained them the moniker Crazy Canucks in the foreign press, which was later taken up by the Canadian media (see the 1976 quotation).

  • 1976  The men?s Alpine team -- loosely termed on European slopes as the Crazy Canucks or speed freaks because of their emergence as downhill threats -- likely will not be affected by a shuffle within the organization.
  • 1995  Krazy Kanuck Ken Read completed senior matriculation the same way. 
  • 2016  "Yeah, I've never been there or even to the Rockies for that matter," I respond a little embarrassed. "Oh, it's awesome! I'm from Calgary and I ski there all the time," he declares. I was already looking forward to visiting a mountain that once hosted the Crazy Canucks back in the eighties but a ringing endorsement from a local with first-hand experience is reassuring.