DCHP-2

two-four two four, 2-4 DCHP-2 (March 2017)

• n. — informal, slang, especially Ontario & Western Canada, Maritimes

  a case of beer containing twenty-four bottles (see Image 1).

  Type: 1. Origin — The term appears to have originated in Canada. In other locations, such as the US, a pack of beer with 24 units, either bottles or cans, is more commonly referred to as a "case" or a "24-pack". Use of the informal two-four is nearly exclusive to Canada (see Chart 1). Note that not every Canadian brewery packs their beers in cases of 24. Cariboo Brewing, from Prince George, BC, for instance, uses 20-packs, while Alexander Keith's, from Nova Scotia, uses 28-packs. Central Canadian breweries, however, generally offer 24-packs.
  Chart 2 is a manually corrected regional search, casting aside any false hits. It shows that the term has a distinct regional pattern: popular in Ontario and all the way to the west coast, not found in Quebec and New Brunswick in our data, while most popular in Nova Scotia. Written attestations are not found in Newfoundland & Labrador and the Territories.
  See also ITP Nelson, s.v. "two-four", which is marked "Canadian Informal" and COD-2, s.v. "two-four", which is marked "Cdn informal".

  See also: May Two Four  two-six  May long  

  • The term now has the status of an informal identity marker of an informal type. It is known by outsiders, as can be seen in US president Barack Obama's casual and humorous comment during a state dinner for PM Justin Trudeau:
    “And tonight, we want our Canadian friends to feel at home. So this is not a dinner, it's supper. We thought of serving up some poutine. I was going to bring a two-four. And then we'd finish off the night with a double-double. But I had to draw the line at getting milk out of a bag -- this, we Americans do not understand. We do, however, have a little Canadian whiskey. That, we do understand.” from "Remarks by Trudeau, Obama at state dinner" Newswire of The Canadian Press, Toronto, ON, 10 Mar 2016.