• Canuck

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /kəˈnÊŒk/
    • Hyphenation: Can + uck
    • Rhymes: -ÊŒk

    Alternative forms

    Origin

    1835 Kanuk (US), 1849 canuck (Canadian), origin Unknown.

    theories

    Several dictionaries simply state that it is an alteration of Canada or Canada. More than one theory holds that the name began as an informal self-appellation by an early Canadian minority, and later acquired a national identity. A few sources explain the ending as coming from Inuktitut inuk ("man, person"), from Chinook ("Aboriginal people of the U.S. Pacific Northwest"), or another Canadian Aboriginal ending like -uc, -uq, or -oc.

    Another theory is that the name is from the surname Connaught, used as a French-Canadian nickname for the Irish. Yet another speculates that the origin is Laurentian kanata ("village"), which is also the origin of Canada. It has also been thought to come from Iroquoian Canuchasa ("hut"), German Genug von Canada ("enough of Canada"), or French quelle canule.

    Since 1975, a number of linguists have come to believe that the name probably comes from Hawaiian kanaka ("man"), a self-appellation of indentured colonial canoemen and Hawaiian sailors working off the Pacific Northwest, Arctic, and New England coasts. The term may have come to English through French canaque, or more likely, via American whalers. Compare English Kanak and French Kanak or canaque ("black person"), Austrian German Kanake.

    Full definition of Canuck

    Noun

    Canuck

    (plural Canucks)
    1. (Canada, informal) A Canadian.
      • 1849, James Edward Alexander, L'Acadie; or, Seven Years' Explorations in British America, v 1, London: Henry Colburn, pp 272–3:We saw a few partridges: we also met a lusty fellow in a forest road with a keg of whisky slung round him, who called to us ‘Come boys and have some grog, I'm what you call a canuck:’ a (Canadian).
    2. (chiefly US slang, often derogatory) A Canadian, especially a French Canadian.
      • 1835, Henry Cook Todd, Notes Upon Canada and the United States, p 92:Jonathan distinguishes a Dutch or a French Canadian, by the term Kanuk.
      • 1889, John G. Donkin, Trooper and Redskin in the Far North-West: Recollections of Life in the North-West Mounted Police, Canada, 1884-1888, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, p 148:It is a pity these Canadian militiamen spoilt the good work they had done by never-failing bluster. But for pure and unadulterated brag I will back the lower-class Canuck against the world. The Yankee is a very sucking dove compared to his northern neighbour.
    3. The French-Canadian dialect.
      • 1904, Holman Francis Day, “Song of the Men o' the Ax: Verse Stories of the Plain Folk Who Are Keeping Bright the Old Home Fires Up in Maine”, in Kin o' Ktaadn, p 145:On the deacon-seat in the leapin' heat / With the corn-cobs drawin' cool and sweet, / And timin' the fiddle with tunkin' feet, / A hundred men and a chorus. / “Roule, roulant, ma boule roulant,” / all Canuck but a good song; / Lift it up then, good and strong, / for a cozy night's before us.
    4. (rare) A thing from Canada.
      • 1887: Grip (Toronto), 19 February, p 3:Who'll buy my caller herrin'? / Cod, turbot, ling, delicious herrin', / Buy my caller herrin', / They're every one Kanucks!
    5. (US, obsolete) A Canadian pony or horse.
      • 1860, Josiah Gilbert Holland, Miss Gilbert's Career: An American Story, p 25:I'll sit here and blow till he comes round with his old go-cart, and then I'll hang on to the tail of it, and try legs with that little Kanuck of his.
    6. (ice hockey) A member of the Vancouver Canucks professional NHL ice hockey team.
    7. The Avro Canada CF-100 fighter-interceptor.

    Usage notes

    In Canada, the term is not derogatory, and is considered to apply to all Canadians. In the United States the term is often considered derogatory, and is particularly derogatory when applied to French Canadians in New England.

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    Adjective

    Canuck

    1. (informal, occasionally construed as derogatory) Canadian.
      • 1887, Grip (Toronto), 5 March, pp 1–2:Well, what do you think of the Canuck elections?
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