DCHP-2
guichet Guichet, Guichet Automatique [< Canadian French guichet 'counter'] DCHP-2 (November 2016)
n. — Quebec, Finance
an electronic machine offering banking services, such as cash withdrawal or deposit.
Type: 5. Frequency — This loan word from Canadian French has found its way into Quebec English. It is reported to be used by 11% of Montrealers and 21% of Quebeckers outside of Montreal. Outside of Quebec, it is not found (Boberg 2012: Table 1). It is a Quebec regional term of minority usage in Quebec English, but one of the Gallicisms frequently commented on in Canada outside of Quebec. The Canadian majority use is bank machine in spoken language, with ABM occurring frequently in writing. The term "ATM", more common in the US, is also used in Canada.See also: automated banking machine see Image 1; ABM bank machine toupie
- 1988 At a Caisses Populaires Desjardins's Guichet Automatique, for example, you can access your line of credit through your chequing account. Rather than creating an overdraft, the amount in excess of the balance in that account is debited from your credit line.
- 1997 THOMPSON: When Montrealers go out they take the metro. When they shop they go to boutiques and when they run out of money they pull out their bank cards and go to the guichet automatique. Would you use the term guichet?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (2): Sure.
THOMPSON: Why would you use it?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (2): Because it means ATM - 2004 Director Pouliot conjures a veritable French Brigadoon of idiosyncratic personalities, from the humourless bank clerk terrified of being replaced by a guichet automatique to the most growly reprobate.
- 2015 I lived almost all my life in cherry river [sic] and my parents still live there [sic] it is a very good idear [sic] for the folks that still live there because it would be closer for them to do there [sic] shopping and especially for the guichet automatique». [sic] my [sic] mother always says I dont [sic] like to go to town just for the bank or just to pick up a few things [sic] I think it is great thank you.
- 2015 But people in most of Canada would never think of withdrawing money from a "guichet" - they visit a "bank machine" or (as in the United States) an "ATM." A small number of English-speakers
in Montreal now use the word "guichet." In the Gaspe, however, "guichet" is fast becoming the norm. The daily presence of French exerts a powerful weight.
References:
- 1988 At a Caisses Populaires Desjardins's Guichet Automatique, for example, you can access your line of credit through your chequing account. Rather than creating an overdraft, the amount in excess of the balance in that account is debited from your credit line.