DCHP-2

depanneur dep, occasionally dépanneur, < Quebec French dépanner 'to repair' DCHP-2 (May 2016)

• n. — Quebec

  a neighbourhood convenience store (see Image 1) .

  Type: 1. Origin — This is a borrowing from Quebec French, where it apparently developed in relation to "mending" someone's shortage of goods typically sold in those stores. It is used by 77 percent of Montreal anglophones (see Boberg 2010: 173), and widely known elsewhere in the country. The clipped short form dep is widely used.
  See also ITP Nelson, s.v. "dépanneur", which is marked "Quebec", COD-2, which marks it as "Cdn (Que.)", and OED-3 which marks it as "Canad.".

  See also: dep  dairy  toupie  

  • 1975  The minister disclosed that there was evidence presented at the inquiry that the following Montreal Metro establishments sold minced beef which may have contained tainted meat. He identified the retailers as: Boucherie Escompte Roger, of Ville Lemoyne, Que., Boucherie Escompte Roger, of Ville Brossard, Que., and Depanneur Laprairie, of Laprairie, Que. 
  • 1976  Dépanneur, gross income $300.000 -- Licenced with $25,000 stock included. Price $75,000 
  • 1979  The East End of Montreal is a big place, with prosperous suburbs like Rosemont and Ville d'Anjou. But Ste. Marie is what most English-speaking people have in mind when they talk about the East End - street after street of red-brick tenements, depanneurs on every corner, and pale, thin children playing in alleys. 
  • 1982  Some bring cognac. They enjoy it. Some bring very expensive wine. Others go to the depanneur (local grocery) and buy inexpensive bottles. It's what they want," Mr. Logothetis said. 
  • 1984  Instead of paying $12 or more for a very mediocre bottle of wine served by the restaurant, you can bring a bottle of the same wine bought in a provincial liquor store (Regie des Alcools) or corner store (depanneur) for $4 or $5.
  • 1988  Another clue to the depanneur, as these places are called, is the people bustling in and out, night and day, seven days a week, with cases of empties, or stooped under full cartons, containing litres of suds, Quebec being the last outpost of giant beers this side of Australia. 
  • 1996  For example, they talk about going to the "dep" -- for dépanneur -- when they head off to a convenience store. 
  • 2002  None of this is to suggest addiction isn't a problem, but those who are addicted to drugs aren't made that way by laws governing access. And it hasn't escaped anyone's notice the most dangerous drug in the country -- liquor -- is readily available. In Alberta or Quebec, we can go to a corner store, although unlike Quebec, where the depanneur will sell you milk and cigarettes with the wine, in Alberta the private liquor stores don't sell non-related products. 
  • 2007  [...] have reason to suspect it does not appeal to the people who run my local depanneur. They are from South Korea. And although they've had the dep for more than 20 years, there is evidence to suggest they have not embraced my fundamental values. 
  • 2015  Beer is different. You can buy a case at the depanneur, then mix it up with a two-four from the grocery store, maybe another depanneur across town, the gas station, and then start the cycle all over again. In a small town, this is known as "fooling no one."