Origin uncertain, often hypothesized to derive from the name or speech of an early Canadian minority, later broadened to denote all Canadians:[1]
Since 1975, many scholars have come to think the name is fromHawaiiankanaka(“man”),[2][3][4] a self-appellation of indentured colonialcanoemen and Hawaiian sailors working off the Pacific Northwest, Arctic, and New England coasts, fromFrenchcanaque(“indigenous Melanesian inhabitant of New Caledonia, Kanak”); or, more likely, Americanwhalers’ pidgin,[5] then re-interpreted asCan(adian) + asuffix.[6] (More below on that [specific] putative suffix.) CompareEnglishKanak andGermanKanake.
Some dictionaries suggest it is derived from the first syllable ofCanada,[3][7] or itsetymonLaurentiankanata(“village”), or a related wordkanuchsa meaning “villager” in either Laurentian or anotherIroquoian language;[8] with the second syllable connected toInuktitutinuk(“man; person”),[9] fromChinook(“Aboriginal people of the U.S. Pacific Northwest”),[10] or another First-Nation language ending like-oc,-uc, or-uq.
Fanciful and unlikely suggestions includeGermangenugvonCanada(literally“enough of Canada”) (allegedly uttered by German mercenaries during the American War of Independence),Frenchquellecanule(“what a bore”) (allegedly uttered by the French during a siege of Quebec), or the surnameConnaught/ˈkɑ.nəxt/ (supposedly a French-Canadian nickname for the Irish).[5]
[1835,[Henry Cook Todd],Notes upon Canada and the United States of America: In the Year MDCCCXXXV[…], Toronto, Ont.:[…]W[illiam] J[oseph] Coates,[…],→OCLC, paragraph 263,page92:
Canadians are somewhat jealous of the Americans; that they are secretly manœuvering, not exactly with the inoffensive good humor of a much respected yeoman of England,[…] but rather after the inordinate example ofAhab of old, so pithily recorded by the sacred historian. Jonathan distinguishes a Dutch or French Canadian, by the termKanuk.
“Jonathan” is a 19th-century nickname for a New Englander.]
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 acanuck:' a (Canadian).
Referring to an English-speaking Canadian.
1889, John G[eorge] Donkin, chapter XIII, inTrooper and Redskin in the Far North-West: Recollections of Life in the North-West Mounted Police, Canada, 1884–1888, London:Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington[…],→OCLC,page148:
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-classCanuck against the world. The Yankee is a very sucking dove compared to his northern neighbour.
1895 August 26, “Sports of field and track: Toronto 14, Rochester 11—first game”, inDemocrat and Chronicle, volume63, number238, Rochester, N.Y.: Rochester Printing Company,→ISSN,→OCLC,page11, column 1:
[T]heCanucks were ready with bats, hands, feet and heads, to outplay the locals at all points. They did it to a nicety. It is wonderful to contemplate the quality of ball speiled by theCanucks when their lungs are filled with Rochester air.
The new-comers were a couple of farmers from Minnesota, genuine Americans from birth; wise men, with a keg of good water in their waggon. "And don't you want to be Americans any longer?" I asked. "No," said they most emphatically, "we'reCanucks now."
One person who realizes that the Canadian troops in England have healthy appetites is Corp. J. R. Johnstone, chief butcher of a unit. He and his 16 assistants drag from huge refrigerators eight tons of meat per day for the hungryCanucks; and every other day when rationing is less severe the butchers carve up 16 tons of lamb, beef and pork.
1964 March 19, Larry Wood, “Dagg stays unbeaten: Scotch Cup winner decided tonight”, in Richard L[ouis] Sanburn, editor,The Calgary Herald, Calgary, Alta.: The Southam Company,→ISSN,page18, column 5:
The Scottish skip[Alex F. Torrance] missed a wide open takeout in the fifth leaving theCanucks another single.
Referring to members of the Canadian curling team.
2016 June 12,Richard Stursberg, “The Secret Canadian Life of Jack Kerouac: Reading Kerouac’s Lost French Writings Reveals the Travails of a Canuck in America”, inMaclean’s[2], Toronto, Ont.: Maclean-Hunter Publishing,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on4 June 2024:
[Jack] Kerouac's writings reveal that, although celebrated as an iconic American, he thought of himself as first and foremost Canadian. InLa Vie est d'Hommage, he writes, "I am French Canadian. When I am angry, I often swear in French; when I dream, I often dream in French." He went on to say that "all my knowledge comes from my being French Canadian.” But as aCanuck in the United States, he felt patronized. He needed to hide his true self. Even with his friends in New York, withAllen Ginsberg andWilliam Burroughs, he was "a completely different man. We have to live in English, it's impossible to live in French. This is the secret thought of theCanuck in America."
The quotations were translated from French by Stursberg.
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 littleKanuck of his.
1892 January 26, “The ‘Canuck’ horse”, inThe Boston Weekly Globe, volume XX, number 4, Boston, Mass.: Globe Publishing Company,→OCLC,page 6, column 4:
Forty years ago the States south of the French part of Canada procured a large number of horses from that country. These were popularly called "Canucks," and were distinguished from the horses of the country by strongly marked characteristics.[…] TheCanuck was thoroughly a Norman horse in all respects except size, though having more strength in proportion to size and more spirit,[…]Canucks in general had excessive knee action, and were natural trotters or pacers, were not built for galloping, and not inclined to take that gait;[…]
Regardingnoun sense 1 (“Canadian person”), in Canada the term is not derogatory, and is considered to apply to all Canadians. When used by non-Canadians, especially in the United States, the term is often considered derogatory, particularly when applied to French Canadians in New England.
1866, Andrew Learmont Spedon, “Tale III. Adventures with Religious Impostors.”, inCanadian Summer Evening Tales, Montreal, Que.:[…] John Lovell,[…],→OCLC,pages71–72:
"Oh, monsieur, monsieur, ayez pitie de moi; je suis honnète et vous paierai dix fois autant." / "You blasted scoundrel that you are, I want none of your impertinence andCanuck lingo; go hunt up your dirty trash of hungry humbugs, that you shouldered upon me last evening.[…]"
1904,Holman F[rancis] Day, “Kingdom o’ Spruce: Song of the Men o’ the Ax”, inKin o’ Ktaadn: Verse Stories of the Plain Folk who are Keeping Bright the Old Home Fires up in Maine, Boston, Mass.:Small, Maynard & Company,→OCLC,page145:
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," / It 's allCanuck but a good old song; / Lift it up then, good and strong, / For a cozy night 's before us.
1956,Herbert Gold, “Round and round, the trick of want”, inThe Man who was Not with It (An Avon Library Book), New York, N.Y.:Avon Books, published March 1969,→OCLC,page179:
So Mama will say,Bon jour, Grack, tu viens enfin? That'sCanuck for you ain't been a son to your ma. Can't you see by my skin and bones—I'm sick, I got a habit—I ain't my mama's anymore?
1901 July 25,Irving Bacheller, chapter XXII, inD’ri and I: A Tale of Daring Deeds in the Second War with the British.[…], Boston, Mass.: Lothrop Publishing Company,→OCLC,page302:
"It is one ver' gran' night," I said in my dialect of the rudeCanuck; for I did not wish him, or any one, to know me.
1866, Andrew Learmont Spedon, “Tale III. Adventures with Religious Impostors.”, inCanadian Summer Evening Tales, Montreal, Que.:[…] John Lovell,[…],→OCLC,page71:
"I want none of your d—— peasoup excuses, or promises," and, calling upon the hostler, a fat-blooded Englishman, he ordered him to stable the horse immediately, and keep a sharp "look out" to thatCanuck Frenchman.
^Irving Lewis Allen (1990), “Flippity Floppity: The Semantic Inversion and Transmigration of Slurs”, inUnkind Words: Ethnic Labeling from Redskin to WASP, New York, N.Y.: Bergin & Garvey,Greenwood Publishing Group,→ISBN, part I (Traditional Slurs),pages59 and 61–62.
↑5.05.1Stefan Dollinger (August2006), “Towards a Fully Revised and Extended Edition of theDictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles (DCHP-2): Background, Challenges, Prospects”, inHistorical Sociolinguistics and Sociohistorical Linguisics[1], volume 6, Amsterdam:John Benjamins Publishing Company for the Department of Humanities,Leiden University,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe original on17 April 2023.
Irving Lewis Allen (1983), “Ethnic Ideology and Folk Etymologies”, inThe Language of Ethnic Conflict: Social Organization and Lexical Culture, New York, N.Y.; Guildford, Surrey:Columbia University Press,→ISBN,pages128–129.
, Oxford:Oxford University Press,July 2023;“Canuck,n. andadj.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
Canuck on Wikipedia.Wikipedia