Do you speak Canadian? Words and phrases unique to Canucks

[KamaAina]

Well, not quite. 'Chinook' is also used in the U.S. Rockies. 'Deke' is specific to hockey, not Canada. How long is it again since a Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup? 'Kerfuffle' is Aussie, I believe. 'Klick' or 'click' is standard in the U.S. military (at least in war movies ). And 'pop', of course, is used instead of soda in the U.S. Midwest.

[Ron Obvious]

1. Not quite

Kerfuffle, Knapsack, Washroom, Pop, Zed. Just off the top of my head, these are hardly unique Canadianisms.

[Jenoch]

5. I counted nine words that I consider not

exclusively Canadian, but zed was not one of them. In what situation would you say "zed"?

[Ron Obvious]

6. It's just the 26th letter of the alphabet.

I've always called it 'zed'.

Here's a Fulham chant about the footballer Bobby Zamorra, who had rather a tendency to wildly shoot high over the bar:

(To the tune of 'That's Amore&quot :

"When you're sat...
in row Zed...
And the ball hits your head...
That's Zamorra..."

[Jenoch]

8. Yeah,

it's the 26th letter of the alphabet...in Canada.

[CBGLuthier]

15. and England. So, not unique to Canada.

[Jenoch]

18. I thought this thread was about Canada...

[sakabatou]

2. I know a few

[OriginalGeek]

3. Don;t the Brits call gyros

doner kebabs? Sounds pretty similar to that donair up there. Now I'm hungry.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Chinook, deke, f**k the dog, housecoat, kerfuffle, klick,

knapsack, pop, washroom are all familiar, not uniquely Canadian.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. Yes, I was going to say that we Minnesotans are part Canadian

[Yavin4]

7. We should invade Canada

They're way over due for an invasion.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. I know a couple of uniquely French Canadian curse words

Hopefully it's allright to post them here. "Osti" refers to the host or sacred bread of communion in the Catholic ceremony. It's a French Canadian misspelling of the French word "hostie". Another one is "tabarnak" which is a Canadian French misspelling of the French word "tabernacle", where the Holy Eucharist is stored in the Catholic ceremony. "Calice" (chalice) is another one. Sometimes they are strung together like "osti de calice de tabarnak" ("host of the chalice of the tabernacle&quot . Sometimes when they're surprised or just pissed, French Canadians just yell out a loud "tabarnakkkkkk". You don't find the same words of profanity in French from France.

[raven mad]

10. Chinook is also used here in Alaska........... and I can't wait till Whitehorse

and the start of the Yukon Quest this year! Loves me some Canada!

[Joe Shlabotnik]

11. Yeah, lets not go there about the Hockey thing, Ok?!

-signed lifelongsufferingleafsfan

[sarge43]

12. Eaves or eaves troughs, housecoat and lumber jacket aren't unique to Canada either.

In New England and the upper Midwest there's a lot of exchange of words and phrases. Other exchanges, too. Both my husband (MA) and I (MI) have Canadian ancestors. We're not talking foreigners here; it's neighbors and family.

[CanSocDem]

13. What you call "a sack"...

...we call a paper bag. As in, "Y'wanna sack for that...???"




.

[malthaussen]

19. I had a lady friend from the Deep South...

... who got into all sorts of difficulty when she asked the grocery checker up here in the Nawth to "give her a poke."

-- Mal

[sharp_stick]

14. A couple to add

that I've at least never heard outside of Canada.

"Ginch" for tighty whitey underwear. Don't get your ginch in a knot

"Ghost Car" for unmarked police cruiser. Damn I think I just passed a ghost car doing 120

"Hooped" for completely ruined. My engine seized it's completely hooped

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. Back in the 1980s, one of my guilty pleasures was Degrassi Junior High, and that's where I learned

a couple of Canadian school-related words.

One is that they say "grade seven" and "grade eight" instead of "seventh grade" and "eighth grade."

They don't "take finals"; they "write their exams."

They don't get "good grades" but "good marks."