Guide to Canadianisms
In October, Jules Sherred, a B.C.-based contributor to GeekMom.com, decided to put some of the unique quirks of Canadian English to the test. The blogger compiled a list of 82 words that, according to Sherred, made American friends “look at me with a blank stare,” and then ran them past a survey group comprising 52 Canadians, 104 Americans and 19 people from the rest of the former British empire, including New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, England and Wales.
Two months and 17,000 data points later, the blogger ranked each word both by how familiar it was to the Canadians and how unfamiliar it was to the rest of the English-speaking world. What emerged was a surprising compilation of words that are apparently foreign to the world beyond our borders. Mickey
Used by 88 per cent of Canadians, a mickey is a 375-millilitre bottle of liquor. In the U.S., the term “mickey” is evolved into slang for a date rape drug, and 69 per cent of Americans were unaware of its more benign Canadian usage. Mickey is actually one of a series of uniquely Canadian booze measurements revealed by the survey. Others include: “two four” (a case of 24 beers), “twenty sixer” (a 750-ml bottle of liquor) and “forty-pounder” (a 1.14-litre bottle of liquor). Tuque
The term is used by 100 per cent of Canadians. Virtually every culture with both cold weather and access to sheep has some national variant of the knit cap. But while this was the only word on the survey that obtained unanimous usage among Canadians, most non-Canadians said they had never heard of it. Freezies
Used by 98 per cent of Canadians, freezies are like Popsicles except that instead of being served on a stick, they come in a cheek-lacerating plastic sleeve. Donair
Used by 71 per cent of Canadians, this meat-heavy, Turkish dish was actually invented in Halifax, although it bears strong relation to what the rest of the world would call a “gyro,” a “doner kebab” or a “shwarma.” Less than one-fifth of non-Canadians recognized the term. Pencil crayon
The term is used by 96 per cent of Canadians, but Americans call them “coloured pencils” and Brits call them “colouring pencils.” Canadians have stuck to pencil crayons, which Sherred suspects is the result of mashing the English “coloured pencils” with the French “crayon de couleur.” Just 14 per cent of Americans recognized the term.