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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsDo you speak Canadian? Words and phrases unique to Canucks
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
(6,261 posts)Kerfuffle, Knapsack, Washroom, Pop, Zed. Just off the top of my head, these are hardly unique Canadianisms.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)exclusively Canadian, but zed was not one of them. In what situation would you say "zed"?
Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)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" :
"When you're sat...
in row Zed...
And the ball hits your head...
That's Zamorra..."
it's the 26th letter of the alphabet...in Canada.
CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)Jenoch
(7,720 posts)sakabatou
(42,170 posts)OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)doner kebabs? Sounds pretty similar to that donair up there. Now I'm hungry.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,807 posts)knapsack, pop, washroom are all familiar, not uniquely Canadian.
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)Yavin4
(35,445 posts)They're way over due for an invasion.
aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)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" . 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
(4,940 posts)and the start of the Yukon Quest this year! Loves me some Canada!
Joe Shlabotnik
(5,604 posts)-signed lifelongsufferingleafsfan
sarge43
(28,942 posts)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
(3,286 posts)...we call a paper bag. As in, "Y'wanna sack for that...???"
.
malthaussen
(17,215 posts)... 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
(14,400 posts)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
(48,217 posts)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."